32 HUMOR (Canadian Style)
Neil McKinnon has posted a eulogy (written by himself for himself) that he would
like to have read at his funeral. Luckily
he will not be disappointed, but only because he won’t be around to hear what is
actually said about him.

20 Anyone Can Train Dog
22 Child of Month
26 Hearts at Work

44 MEXICAN HISTORY

30 Thunder on Right

Bill Dean writes that there were 20 million Indians here when Cortez first arrived. By the year 1600, only a small fraction of that number still existed.

38 Lakeside Living

47 FOREIGN TRAVEL
Gail Nott wonders why a journey that
starts in Guadalajara and ends in Ireland
should take more than 25 hours! She
does not age well, and hence is quite
miffed.

El Ojo del Lago aparece los primeros
cinco días de cada mes. (Distributed over
the first five days of each month)
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de 1993) y SEP (Reserva 171.94 control 14301)
del 15 de enero de 1994.
Distribución: Hidalgo 223 Chapala, Jalisco,
México.
All contents are fully protected by copyright
and may not be reproduced without the written
consent of El Ojo del Lago. Opinions expressed
by the authors do not necessarily reflect the
views of the Publisher or the Editor, nor are we
responsible for the claims made by our advertisers. We welcome letters, which should include
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4

COVER STORY

 DIRE C TOR Y 

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

LAKESIDE LIVING

VOLUME 29 NUMBER 7

38

48 View From South Shore
57 Front Row Center
62 The Poets’ Niche

42

Saw you in the Ojo

5

Editor’s Page
Guest Editorial by Kay Davis
Canada and the USA

W

hat are the differences
between Canada and
the US? Politics aside,
there is history and there is climate.
It took a long and bloody war for
America to win independence. However, Britain goaded the colonists, and
Americans were willing, almost eager,
to fight. Not so Canada. They held ties
to two homelands, previous enemies.
The French settled Quebec while the
British built Ontario. Negotiation was
paramount. The French dropped any
claim and in 1867 the British North
America Act peacefully created the
Dominion of Canada, recognizing their
right to self-rule. The name was shortened to “Canada.”
There were significant climatic influences as well. Too many Canadian settlers starved or froze during the harsh
winters. They helped each other by
leaving the door unbarred for anyone
in need of shelter. When you do that, it’s
wise to be friendly with local Indians.
Meanwhile Americans, whose treaties were repeatedly broken in Washington, built fortresses in striking position to weaken Indians as pioneers
pushed west. It was under the guise of
protection, but aggression led to bloodshed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Canadians negotiate as if their Indians were a separate nation within Canada. The French in Quebec threatened
to separate unless Canada negotiated
with them too. Together they instituted
a Universal Medical system that works
for all. They also look after their poor,
and they invite immigrants.
On both sides of the border, entrepreneurs recognized struggle as opportunity and flourished: dams for power,
manufacturing. Bell Telephone was developed in Canada and popularized in
America where industrialization took
hold, and Edison lit up the world.
The shift from east to west was, in
both countries, staggeringly difficult
but compelling. The Canadian west was
settled much the same as the history
in the US west, e.g. oil, cattle, lumber,
mining, gold...and the railroad connecting markets with natural resources. But
Canada has a tougher climate in which
to develop. Regardless of what great
finds there are, it’s always a costlier
economic outlay. But great finds there
were! The Northern Territories discovered the single greatest find of pure,

6

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

gem-quality diamonds the world has
seen.
US pioneers heading west helped
each other, and it was successful, but
not as much so as opportunity and
greed, especially once Pennsylvania discovered oil, with Oklahoma, Texas and
California following the westward trek.
The two countries experienced many
challenges in common, but the differences are powerful.
(1) Slavery was key to the economy
of the US south while industrialization
drove the northeast. Slavery was repulsive to Canadians, as well as most in the
northern US.
(2) Canada’s wholesomeness has
been a more successful strategy. Fair
negotiation and honoring commitments are key because it will always
come back to bite you if you don’t play
fair. Americans were strong, clever and
fast, especially with a gun. Canada’s
good guy attitude is still in play. It was
Canada who rescued some Americans
held in Iran in 1979– it was simply the
right thing to do for a neighbor.
At the heart of the difference is attitude. Canada chose community. Americans chose opportunity and reward.
For the most part the two countries
balance each other well. For America,
Canada is a reliable economic and political ally, and Canada benefits because
Armed Forces are expensive. Canada
buys American products while America
needs Canadian resources. The two
countries are like a strong big brother
and a resourceful but gentler younger
brother.
Looking back from today’s economic and political challenges, we can see
that the “old west” style created problems. American taxpayers are tired of
being fall guys for the rich and powerful. There’s a lynching party forming and
we’d better hope Gary Cooper is the
sheriff elected. The difference is critical
if we want to retain our allies. And we
do.
(Ed. Note: Kay holds dual citizenship.
Born and raised in the US, she chose to
live in Canada and flourished there. She is
now retired in Mexico.)

THE RAINY SEASON
By Chuck Pattinian

T

his past summer we returned to Mexico during
the rainy season and I can
tell you it is somewhat over rated. My
wife and I usually miss the rainy season
because we return to the states each
summer but continually hear from our
friends that it is the best time to be at
lakeside. Really? Sleep deprivation due
to the constant thunder claps replaced
my wife’s usual hormonal complaints. It
took awhile to get accustomed to the
lighting in the bedroom, I kept thinking
it was a burglar’s flashlight.
And when the rain would gush
through the gargoyles and splatter on
the ground outside our bedroom, it
felt like subliminal water boarding. The
thunder claps and sleep deprivation
make for strange hallucinatory bedfellows at three in the morning. Never
mind that my eyes resembled road
maps in the morning. One look at me
and my friends could tell I was either on
a binge the night before or I was a victim of the rainy season.
Occasionally events got cancelled,
which never happens in the sunny
season. My cotton shirt and pants had
shrunk after being caught in the rain
one afternoon. That was okay, but when
my friend’s saw me wearing them several days later and thought I had gained
weight that flustered my ego. My blue
car was now a splotchy brown, my
shoes were muddy, heavier and curled
at the toes, my hair was frizzy, and my
walk around water pools was more
measured and deliberate. We didn’t
have enough cooking pans to catch the
leaks dripping from our flat roof. Our
washed out expensive plants were all
gathered at the end of the garden sharing the same grave heap. On top of all
that, the scorpions came inside out of
the rain. Waaaaa!
After awhile I accepted the rainy
woes together with the disconnected
intermittent internet and telephone
service. At least with all the lightning I
could see where I was going during the
night to reach the bathroom. Where
else can you find a free dazzling light
and sound show over a beautiful lake
at night? The reflections can light up
one’s face and the rumble of the clash-

ing clouds can rock one’s soul. The jolt is
like a body stone; you feel and see the
ecstasy of the weather around you but
you can’t control your reaction to it.
The rainy season gives the lake its
annual infusion of much needed water. The farmers are dancing, the car
washers are dancing with the farmers,
and the fishermen give thanks to their
rain gods for another rainy season. The
mountains give up their brown dreary
winter overcoat and replace it with an
emerald green cape sprinkled with wild
flowers. The mountain waterfalls come
to life in the oddest places showing their
power and letting out their roar as they
cascade down to reach their centuries
old arroyo. The construction dust has a
terrible time flying around in the rainy
season. When I’m caught in the rain I
can reduce my twice weekly showers to
one. The smell of dampened fresh air is
so invigorating that it fills our mountain
side home with life. Our toiling sprinkler
system gets a much needed rest from
its winter load.
One day while walking in the rain I
realized I’m not here to change Mexico’s
weather patterns, or to change Mexico’s
way of life. I’m here to absorb it; I’m here
to embrace it. Would I rather be back in
New York listening to my clients barking at me about some office dribble? Of
course not. Mexico is my adopted home
along with the rainy season and all the
wonders she offers that I can’t find back
in New York or anywhere else. Rain,
thunder, lightning? Bring it on!

Saw you in the Ojo

7

DON
D
ON YS
YSIDRO
SID
DRO
O
By Bruce Holland Rogers

O

n that last morning,
anyone who came to
visit me could see that
I was dying. I knew it myself. As if
I had cotton in my ears, I heard the
voice of Don Leandro saying to my
wife, “Doña Susana, I think it is time
to fetch the priest,” and I thought,
yes, it’s time. We don’t have our own
priest, or even our own church, so
someone has to drive in a pickup
truck to get the priest from El Puentecito. But don’t be fooled by what
you may hear in Malpasa or in Palpan
de Baranda. Here we remain Catholic. Yes, we make pots in the old way.
That’s why tourists come here.
And it’s true, as is sometimes whis-

8

pered, that we have restored certain
other practices from the past. But not
as they were done back then. Those
were bloody and terrible times, the
times of the Mejica. They say that the
sacrificial blood covered the sun pyramids from top to bottom. Thank the
Virgin, we don’t do anything like that.
A little after the priest came and
went, I died. Word spread. People
came to our house. My family asked
first for things of mine that they
wanted. Then the other neighbors.
Don Francisco stood near my body
and said, “Don Ysidro, may I have your
shovel? I need one, and your sons-inlaw can dig new clay for Susana.”
I said, “Take it with my blessing.”

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Susana said, “He says for you to
take it.”
Next was Doña Eustacia. She
asked for one of my seguetas for
scraping pots.
I said, “Of course. Go with my
blessing,” and Susana said, “He says
for you to take it.”
When Don Tomás came, he asked
for my boots, the ones of red leather
with the roosters in the stitching.
I said, “Tomás, you thieving rascal! I know very well that you took
two of my chickens that night seven
years ago to feed to your whore from
Puebla. And here you come asking
not for a segueta or some wire, but
for my good boots!”
And Susana said, “He says for you
to take them.” Because, of course, she
couldn’t hear me. In any case, I would
have let Tomás have the boots. I only
wanted to see him blush just one
time.
They came and asked for everything that Susana would not need.
They asked even for things for which
it was not necessary to ask. They
asked for things I had already promised to them. They even asked for
permission to dig white clay from
the place where I liked to find it. They
asked, and I said yes, with my blessings. We are nothing if not polite.
Last of all, they asked for a few of
my hairs to make brushes for painting pots. They cut what locks there
were with scissors. They asked for my
hands and cut them off with a knife
for butchering goats. They said, “Don
Ysidro, we want your face.” I agreed,
and they flayed off the skin very
carefully and tenderly. They put my
hands in a metal drum and burned
them. They dried my face in the sun.
Meanwhile, they wrapped the rest of
my body in a shroud and buried it in
the churchyard according to the customs of the Church.
For a time after that, I was in an
emptiness, a nowhere place. I didn’t
see. I didn’t hear. I couldn’t speak. I

wasn’t anywhere, not in my house,
not in the coffin in the ground. Nowhere. But that would change.
All my life, I had taught the other
people of my village to make pots as
I made them. That was nothing special. We all did this. I made my own
Don Ysidro pots, except when Doña
Isabela showed me how to make her
little tiny ones, or Don Marcos demonstrated how he painted his. Then
for a while, I would make little tiny
pots just like Doña Isabela or pots
painted in the style of don Marcos.
When Doña Jenífera had gone to the
capital to see the birds and animals
on ancient pots, she imitated those
decorations, showed us, and soon we
all knew how to do it. The rest of the
time, I made pots in my own manner,
though sometimes with a little touch
of Isabela or Marcos or Jenífera that I
had learned from them and made my
own.
Now for the week after I had died,
everyone in the village would be
making pots as I had made them.
Even the children, if they were old
enough to make pots of their own.
They dug white clay from my favorite
place, soaked it, filtered it, let it settle,
and poured off the clear water from
the slurry. When the clay was dry
enough, they mixed in the ashes of
my hands. Then they made clay tortillas and pressed them into big plaster
molds for the base, just like the ones
I used. Sometimes they used my
very own molds. They made snakes
of clay, attached them to the bases,
wound them around from the bottom up. My pots didn’t have necks.
Neither did these.
The people—my family and all the
rest of the town—scraped these pots
smooth, rubbed them to a shine, and
painted them with black paint, using
brushes of my own hair and in designs I would have used: lizards and
rabbits with checkered backs, or else
just checkers that started big around
the middle of the pot and became intricate at the lip. Those were pots in
the Don Ysidro style. They fired them.
The ones that the fire didn’t break,
they brought to my house. Susana
put pots all around the front room,
and even in the bed where I had lain.
But I didn’t see this. I only knew it
was happening.
These pots in my house sat undisturbed. The people burned the
brushes made from my hair.
On the third day, there was a feast
at my house. Probably there were
all kinds of tamales, some with olives and meat, some with seeds and
beans. Men and women drank pulque, and there was perhaps melon
water for the children. The sun went
down. Candles were lit. A fire burned

in my fireplace.
At midnight, Don Leandro
opened a box and took out the mask
made of my own skin. He put my face
over his face, and I opened our eyes.
I came from the place that was nowhere. I was in the room. I looked at
the faces, at the wide eyes of the living, at Susana holding her hand over
her mouth. I saw my grandchildren,
Carlos and Jalea, Ana and Quinito.
And for the first time, I could see the
pots in the living room. They glowed
in the candlelight. Together, Don Leandro and I went into the bedroom
and I saw the pots there on the bed.
We returned to the living room, and I
said with our mouth, “I see that I am
not dead after all!”
“No, no, Don Ysidro,” they assured
me. “You are not dead!”
I laughed. That’s what you feel like
doing when you see that you aren’t
dead.
Then Don Leandro threw the
mask into the fire, and I wasn’t in the
mask any more. I was in the pots. In
all those round pots made by the
hands of my friends, my rivals, my
family, my neighbors. I was there, in
each one. The people took me away
from my house, pot by pot, and I entered their houses with them. In my
former home, they left only the pot

that Susana had made in my style.
From that night forward, I was all
over the village. People stored corn
in me, or rice, or beans. They used me
to carry water. And I spread out from
there, for if tourists came to buy pots
and happened to admire me, the potter would say, “Oh, that’s Don Ysidro.”
And the tourist would nod and perhaps buy the pot that he thought
was merely made by Don Ysidro.
I am still in my little village, but
I am in Stockholm, too, and Seattle.
I am in Toronto and Buenos Aires.
Some of me is in Mexico, the capital,
though I am mostly still at home here
in the village where I grew up, grew
old, and died. I sit on Susana’s shelf
where I can watch her make ordinary
tortillas for her breakfast or clay tortillas for her pots. She is old, but her
hands are still quick as birds. Sometimes she knows that I am watching
her, and she looks over her shoulder
and laughs. Whether she can hear
it or not, my answering laughter is
deep and full and round like a great
big pot in the manner of Don Ysidro.
(Ed. Note: Bruce Holland Rogers
will be one of the guest speakers at
the upcoming Lake Chapala Writers’
Conference at the New Posada on
March 7/8.)

iving in Mexico, we get
good at waiting. Well…
some people do. Those of
us who love Mexico have undoubtedly adapted to the lifestyle here. And
that includes getting used to a different sense of timeliness. As people
here say, mañana does not necessarily
mean tomorrow; it just means “not today.”
The New York Times reported on an
interesting situation that occurred at
the Houston airport several years ago.
The airport was receiving a lot of complaints that the arriving passengers
had to wait too long for their luggage
to arrive at the baggage claim area.
The complaints were persistent, so the
airport decided to implement procedures which would reduce the time it
took to remove the baggage from the
planes and transport them to the bag-

10

Bill Frayer
gage claim belts. Still, the complaints
persisted. So they tried an interesting
experiment.
Instead of trying to get the baggage there faster, they rerouted the
corridors from the arrival gates to the
baggage claim so the passengers had
to walk an extra ten to fifteen minutes to get to the baggage claim area.
When the passengers finally arrived,
the baggage was there for them to
claim. In spite of the fact that the time
it took to get their bags was exactly
the same, the complaints completely
disappeared! The passengers were
now occupied walking to the baggage
claim area and were not simply waiting with nothing to do.
Now that’s interesting. What seems
to bother people about waiting is not

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

just the time which it takes something
to happen, it is passing the time with
nothing to do, in other words: wasted
time. When they were walking to the
baggage claim, they were no longer
just wasting time waiting.
What this suggests to me is that our
aggravation about waiting is really in
our heads. Why are we so much more
tolerant of waiting for something to
occur in Mexico than we would be
back in the US or Canada? Waiting
for events to start, waiting for deliveries to occur, even waiting for food to
arrive at our tables on Mexican time
seems natural to us here. Yet, if we had
to endure similar delays in our home
countries, we’d likely be annoyed or
even find such waits unacceptable.
So it’s the anticipation, and expectation, that something should occur
on a specific timetable that creates
the sense of waiting. When we were
children, it seemed to take forever for
Christmas to arrive because we were
anticipating its arrival. These days,
Christmas seems to come too fast because we have so much to do.
I think living in Mexico makes us
more patient. If we think about it,
having things happen on a particular
schedule isn’t really very important,
most of the time. We have the most
trouble with waiting when we are fo-

cusing inordinately on the future, rather than on the present. If we are living
mindfully, in the moment, focusing on
the present, we are not thinking about
waiting for what will happen. Instead
we are living in the here and now.
We can live all our present moments waiting for things which have
not yet occurred. This gets tedious
quickly. Or we can live each moment
for its own sake and let the future unfold as it will, in its own time. I think
many Mexicans are happy because
they are good at living in the present.
It’s a good idea. The future may disappoint us.

BRIDGE
B
RIDGE B
BY
Y THE
THE LAKE
LAKE
By Ken Masson

A

ficionados of duplicate
bridge love this version
of the game for many reasons, not the least being the competition between players sitting in
the same direction and holding the
same cards. A duplicate game normally consists of 26 or 27 deals over
the course of about 3½ hours and,
thanks to our living in the computer
age, results are known very shortly
after the last hand is played and a
printout lets you study all the results
at your leisure.
We are very fortunate here in
Lakeside to have a wonderful duplicate club that welcomes newcomers
warmly. There is even a weekly game
just for newbies – if you have never
played duplicate before, or haven’t
played for a long time, I suggest you
try it out. The club is located in Riberas beside Mom’s restaurant. To
learn more go to their website: http://
www.chapalabridge.com/
This month’s hand shows the duplicate mind at work as overtricks
are worth their weight in gold. The
contract of 3 hearts by South was
arrived at after North responded to
South’s opening of 1 heart with a bid
of 1 no trump, which was forcing for
one round. East in turn made a call
of 2 clubs and South rebid 2 hearts
to show a six card suit. North raised
to the three level to show precisely
3 card support and values for a limit
raise but as South had a minimum in
high card points, there was no further
bidding.
West obediently led the 8 of clubs
which East overtook with the 9 to
cash the ace and then to continue
with the king. South paused to contemplate the situation. If there had

been no bidding by East or West, declarer would likely have ruffed with
the heart jack, hoping that East held
the queen. However, the bidding
had revealed that East held 5 clubs
to West’s 2, therefore there were 11
unknown cards in West’s hand to 8
in East’s hand. The laws of probability now slightly favoured West having
more hearts than East and therefore
more likely to hold the queen.
Having figured that out, South
now had to decide what to do about
it. Then the penny dropped – South
ruffed the club queen with the ace of
trumps! Now declarer laid down the
heart jack on which West smoothly
followed with the 2. Unflinchingly,
declarer called for the 6 from dummy
and was delighted to see the 9 played
by East. Now it was simplicity itself to
lead another high heart and it mattered not whether West covered as
the queen was well and truly smothered. Declarer lost only one more
trick, a diamond, and scored 170 for 3
hearts making 4.
The true reward for declarer’s initiative was a complete top on the board
when the comparisons were made
at the end of the session. At every
other table the contract was either 4
hearts down 1 or 3 hearts just making.
Knowing the likely distribution of the
opponents’ cards stood this declarer
in good stead.
Of course, there was no guarantee
that South’s ploy would work but his
thoughtful play increased the odds in
his favor.
Questions
or
comments:
email:
masson.ken@gmail.
Ken Masson
com

ut, like the Beatles sang,
“not just anybody.”
Help can be complicated. It’s a wonderful quality to want to
help someone with a difficult problem or sticky situation. To care about
someone else and be willing to give
your time and energy toward another
is admirable. Help, however, may be
helpful or unhelpful, and it can sometimes be confusing to know which is
which.
For starters, it is vitally important
you are helping someone with an
issue they also regard as a problem.
Helpful help brings a person to a solution they want rather than the one
you think they need.
Sounds intuitively obvious, yet it
is a common occurrence, and something I, like many others, have had
to learn over and over again. I can
remember clear back to a day in Central Park when I was about 16 years
old. I was at a uniquely ‘60s event, a
Be-In, where people gathered to hear
music, dance, and party, frequently
under the influence of mind-altering
enhancements. A young man approached me in a panic, saying he
needed help, he’d taken 13 of these
enhancements, and needed help
quickly. I was ready to run to find a
phone and call 911 for him, when
he spoke again and stated his need
more explicitly. He was choking, and
what he wanted was some water
to wash them all down. One never
knows what sort of help someone
else might be looking for!

12

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Sometimes the help we offer is really more for our own benefit or egoboost. I got a reminder of this some
years ago, when the lake was really
low and very far out. At the time,
there were many semi-wild horses
living and grazing on the expansive
lakefront where I walked my dogs
each day. I always carried a pocketful
of carrots on my walks and enjoyed
making friends with the horses by
feeding them these yummy treats.
On one of my walks I noticed several
men attempting to herd horses into
a nearby fenced pasture. A renegade
stallion stubbornly ran the other
way. This was my chance to demonstrate my prowess as a Horse Whisperer, and so I carefully approached
the renegade offering him carrots.
Wary, but hungry, he ate one after
another, following me as I slowly led
him to the pasture. When we reached
the fence, I proudly motioned for the
men to open the gate and receive my
new friend, thinking they must be really impressed by my amazing skill.
Instead they just looked at me oddly
as one announced, “That’s not my
horse.” So much for that ego-boost!
Another form of unhelpful helping is doing it in ways that make the
other person feel helpless or take
away their dignity. This is especially
important to remember when helping someone who is elderly or sick.
That person may already be feeling
frustration or anger at their limitations. Provide assistance that empowers and helps them to help themselves. An example would be offering
to take an elderly friend shopping to
select their own things rather than
just bringing items from their shopping list.
Maintain a helping spirit, and
make sure your helping is helpful by
keeping your assumptions and your
ego out of it. Offer it with sensitivity
and an open heart, and you will find
more help coming back to you whenever you might be in need.
Editor’s Note: Joy is a practicing
psychotherapist in Riberas. She can
be contacted at joy@dunstan.org
or 765-4988 or through her website:
http://joydunstan.weebly.com.

Saw you in the Ojo 13

SPONSORSHIP AT JALTEPEC
By Mike and Sally Myers

W

ith so many worthwhile
ways for the foreign
community of Lake
Chapala to give back, why would
you choose sponsorship at Jaltepec? What is Jaltepec?
Jaltepec Centro Educativo is a
highly specialized institute for young
girls, mostly from low-income families. The students come from all over
Mexico for intensive training in cooking, cleaning, laundering, hotel and
administrative techniques, including
food and beverage management,
computer skills, English language and
accounting.
Graduates are well prepared to obtain jobs in upscale hotels and restaurants, and to open their own businesses. The graduates not only raise their
own economic standard, but that of
their families for generations to come.
Most of the students are the
daughters of laborers, tradesmen,
gardeners and maids. The parents of
the scholarship recipients must make
great efforts and real sacrifices for
their daughters. The program targets
tuition only, and the family or the student must pay for uniforms, books,
general supplies, and a portion of
their room and board. One student
and her mother worked for two years
selling baked goods to raise the extra
money.
Currently, there are four students
seeking scholarships. The first is a
second year student named Miriam.

14

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

She is twenty years old and has two
younger siblings. Her father is a delivery man in La Barca, and her mother is
housebound due to MS. Miriam wants
to finish the program at Jaltepec so
she can help her family.
Sixteen-year-old Daria from Tlajomulco, Jalisco, wants to be an entrepreneur. Her father is a gardener, and
her mother works in a fabric shop.
With her siblings still in preparatoria
and secundaria, there is little money
left for Daria.
Maria is the twelfth of fourteen
children. Her sixty-six year old father
is retired and her mother is a housewife. She wants to open a snack stand
selling non-alcoholic exotic drinks.
She was able to pay for her first year,
but needs a scholarship to complete
the program.
Eighteen-year-old Teresaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father
lives in the states. He does not have
papers or a steady job. She would like
to start her own small business and
help her four siblings with their education.
How does sponsorship work? The
answer is in many ways. Some sponsors take the responsibility of one student for the entire two years she is at
Jaltepec. Many sponsors develop life
long relationships with the young lady
they have helped. Other sponsors prefer to remain in the background. Currently, there is one student sponsored
by three couples sharing expenses.
Various clubs and organizations have
been faithful sponsors. Maybe your
book club, bridge club, cooking club
or church group would be interested
in helping. Any donations, large or
small, will help these young ladies
complete their education.
Would you like to help raise the
economic standard for an underprivileged family? Sponsorship can make
all the difference in the world to a
deserving young lady and her family. If you would
like more information, please
contact
Linda
Buckthorp:
buckthorplm@
gmail.com
Mike & Sally Myers

Saw you in the Ojo 15

By Victoria Schmidt

A Trip to The Cancer Institute

D

arkness surrounded the
Chapala bus depot as
we arrived for our early
morning ride. I was going with my
Mexican friend to the Cancer Institute in Guadalajara for a special appointment arranged for us with the
assistant director of the Institute.
She knew little about her cancer. She
didn’t even know the kind of questions to ask. But I did. A cancer survivor myself, I was well acquainted
with what to ask. I even hired an interpreter.
It was unusual for me not to drive
to Guadalajara. Leaving the driving
to someone else is not easy for me,
and although the fare was inexpensive, and the bus was comfortable, I
was suffering from motion sickness,
and I spent the trip to Guadalajara in
great discomfort. She noticed I was
a little distressed, and she reached
into her purse and pulled out a roll
of toilet paper, and wrapped off tissue and gave it to me to mop my
sweaty face. I laughed. She had a
“Mom” purse! Just like every Mom
I’ve ever known, she carries everything “just in case.” Boy scouts have
nothing on Moms!
My real education began when
we went into the Cancer Institute.
We walked through the doors, and
were met by a solid mass of humanity. There were people in wheelchairs, people with crutches, canes,
walkers, and others who leaned
against walls or one another for support. There seemed to be no order to
the chaos. Many had shaved heads,
and a lot of patients were wearing
masks to protect them during the
cold and flu season. Some were on
oxygen machines. There is no chairs
available for anyone to sit. The sheer
volume of people in that entry was
overwhelming.
I felt a tug on my sleeve as she
led me through the crowd to a small
elevator. We arrived at the appropriate floor and went to sit outside
the door of the office of the doctor.
Then my friend explained to me that

16

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

she needed to go over to yet another area, and wait in line to get her
results. When our interpreter arrived,
she explained that all the people in
the lobby were waiting either to be
assigned an appointment, or waiting to be accepted as patients at the
Clinic. Not everyone, she explained
was accepted as a patient.
Finally the doctor arrived and we
filed into his office. I started by thanking the doctor for seeing us, and explained to him, through our interpreter, that my friend knew she had
thyroid cancer, but she didn’t know
which of the four types of thyroid
cancer she had. She also didn’t know
if a biopsy was ever performed, and
she didn’t know what stage her cancer was in. Then I sat there for a long
while as the Spanish flew between
patient, doctor, and interpreter. I
felt as though an entire novel had
been written by the time the interpreter explained. I smiled. My friend
looked puzzled at me, and I took her
hand assuring her I’d explain more
later. The echogram showed no cancer, but another more extensive test
will be needed in March.
After a few more questions about
the medication and schedule, we
were done. Even though my friend
had heard everything, she explained
that she speaks Spanish, but she
doesn’t speak “medical.” We laughed,
and I explained to her, that her cancer is the type that has the highest
cure rate, the lowest recurrence rate,
and that they caught the cancer at
an early stage. Her prognosis was
very good, but we would know more
in March after the next test.
She reached into her purse and
pulled out that roll of toilet paper,
this time for her. Tears of relief travelled down her face making parenthetical
streaks
around her broad
smile. Since that day,
she has been a different person. Now she
has hope.
Victoria Schmidt

Saw you in the Ojo 17

GRAPE EXPECTATIONS
By Robert Kleffel and Noemí Paz
Viu Manent - Chile

“

V

iu Manent is the very
model of consistency
as all of its wines can
be recommended and several offer exceptional value.”
—Robert Parker, 2012
When we first read the above recommendation by Robert Parker we
investigated this boutique family
owned winery. They are producing
a wide range of fine wines and winning awards in international competitions. Viu Manent was the top most
awarded Chilean winery in 2010.
This important achievement shines
a spotlight on the Viu Manent enological philosophy that focuses on
constantly striving for quality and
identity in their wines. Viu Manent is
a Chilean winery owned by the Viu
family. It was founded in 1935 when
the Catalonian immigrant Miguel
Viu-García and his two sons Agustín
and Miguel Viu-Manent founded
Bodegas Viu in Santiago de Chile.
They bottled and sold wine on the
local market under the “Vinos Viu”
brand.
Secreto de Viu Manent—The
winery has a high end selection of
wines called Secreto. The Secreto
(secret) is not only good marketing,
it is also good wine making. The result is a line of blended wines made
with a primary grape varietal component that is recognized and indicated on the label. In addition, up
to 15% of the wine is another grape
varietal which is the closely guarded
“secret blend”. The “Secreto” range of
wines also includes a closely guarded secret related to land, proportions, and balance. Most of the Secretos wines are made with grapes
from young vineyards, which help
to create a fresh and fruity style.
Secreto de Viu Manent - Sauvignon Blanc—Tasting Notes
This wine is a clean, bright, almost transparent greenish-yellow
color. A wine with character, with a
delicate and elegant nose marked
by citrusy notes of lime and yellow
grapefruit, fresh fruit, and mineral
tones intermingled with sea salt,
white peach and lychee. There is
no mistaking a ‘Classic’ Sauvignon
Blanc.
Pairing: Sauvignon Blanc tastes
young, fresh, a little grassy and

18

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

tangy. This is a crisp wine that is
perfect to pair with green salads
topped with goat cheese, chicken,
shellfish and pork, or even veal.
These wines are also great at cutting through rich buttery dishes, especially ones that contain seafood.
Sauvignon Blanc will go great with
most vegetarian soups, especially
minestrones and simple purées.
In fact Sauvignon Blanc is a great
starter wine for a meal as it will
pair well with many traditional first
courses such as soup, salads, antipasto or seafood dishes. Even bold
sauces like guacamole or salsa. The
high acidity in Sauvignon Blanc allows it to go great with sharp dishes
such as crème fraiche, sour cream,
yogurt, dill, capes, olives, tomatoes,
zucchini and squash.
Secreto de Viu Manent - Carmenere—Tasting Notes
Intensely violet in color this wine
exhibits an opulent nose of black
cherry, mocha and fragrant herbs.
In the mouth flavors of boysenberry
and bittersweet chocolate predominate accompanied by ample leather, tar and wild mushrooms. This is
backed up by firm yet voluptuous
tannins leading to a long, rich finish.
Serving temperature: 17 to 18°C or
63 degrees F. Pairing—While highly
versatile for pairing with food, we
find that Carmenere goes particularly well with dishes that contain
the following ingredients: Herbs
and spices: oregano, rosemary,
and thyme, garlic, fennel, red and
black pepper, curry powder, paprika. Fruits and vegetables: olives,
black and green, mushrooms, tomatoes, green pepper, eggplant, onion,
sweet potato, corn. Meats and Fish:
lamb, stewing beef, pork sausage,
chicken.

Saw you in the Ojo 19

Anyone
A
nyone C
Can
an Train
Train Their Dog
By Art Hess
artthedogguy@yahoo.com

Getting the dog’s attention.
Teach him his name.

S

hep is a German Shepherd puppy of only 10 ½
weeks and we start his
lessons with learning his name.
We have made him aware that we
have a treat which we will use first
as a “lure” to get him to look up at
my face and toward my hand. I hold
my hand in front of my face and say
his name in a conversational tone.
When he responds favorably he will
get the “reward” for performing the
task. I use only one word. His name.
If he looks up he is rewarded. If he
doesn’t respond I do nothing. Positive response gets a positive reaction. Negative response gets
no reaction.
As an aside, when you offer the
reward be sure you simply open
your hand and let him take the reward off your flat hand. If we hold
the reward in our fingers the dog
has a tendency to try to get the
treat from between your fingers
and this can create a nipper. Not
his fault. He is only trying to get the
good stuff.
If he doesn’t respond, be patient
and stand there ready to offer the
reward. He will ultimately look up
(usually within 20 or 30 seconds)
and as soon as he responds favorably, bingo!, the hand opens and he
receives the reward. Many people
from my classes tell me their dog

20

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

mastered this in two or three days.
Well guess what, if your dog doesn’t
figure this out in three minutes
you’re doing something wrong.
The object of the exercise is to
IMPRINT the dog’s name. For those
of you who are old enough to remember, this is the same as brainwashing. We repeat this exercise
four or five times and stop. Three or
four minutes later we repeat until
we have performed five exercises
of five repetitions. Each of these
sessions will only take two or three
minutes. We do this five times daily. Behaviorists tell us to repeat this
process for six weeks. I’ve never had
anyone go beyond three weeks but
I do personally continue the procedure in small bits throughout much
of the training and I also incorporate a version when I’m teaching
the task of “look at me.”
The main thing is to use only
the name, reward positive reactions, repeat regularly until the
name is thoroughly entrenched.
When you can speak the dog’s
name from ten feet away and get
a positive response five out of
five times you can be assured that
your dog knows and responds to
his name. If he only responds on
his terms when he feels like it, you
can roll up the newspaper and hit
yourself over the head and say you
didn’t do your job properly.
It’s important to understand that
dogs don’t understand English
(or Spanish, Russian, or Chinese for
that matter) and our main task is to
teach them one word at a time in
a logical manner so they can associate a noise and a signal as being
the command to perform a particular task. The reason we teach only
one word at a time is many people
run off at the mouth such as “Hey
Buddy how’s my cute baby puppy,
come over here.” Granted you did
use the dog’s name but which of
those ten words did you expect him
to learn and which one is going to
be his name?

Saw you in the Ojo 21

CHILD

of the month

Rich Petersen
Jesús Santiago Silahua
Carranza

T

his blond cherub is Jesús
Santiago Silahua Carranza,
who lives in Ixtlahuacan with
his parents and two siblings. Mom is a
housewife and Dad is a carpenter. “Santiago” is only 5 months old and has been
with us since just after birth. Perhaps
from this photo it is not evident, but
little Santiago has Down Syndrome. This
syndrome is caused by extra genetic
material from chromosome 21 (chromosomes are the structures in cells that
contain the genes). The usual number of
chromosomes in each person is 46 (23
pairs). We inherit one chromosome per
pair from the mother’s egg and father’s
sperm, the union of which forms a fertilized egg.
But, sometimes something goes

22

wrong before fertilization, and the developing egg or sperm cell may divide
incorrectly, causing the egg or sperm
cell to have an extra chromosome number 21. Thus, when this cell joins with a
normal egg or sperm cell, the resulting
embryo has three number 21 chromosomes, for a total of 47 instead of 46.
This is the cause of approximately 95%
of the cases of Down Syndrome.
It is not known why this cell division

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

error occurs. It is known that the “error”
occurs at conception and is not related
to anything the mother did during pregnancy. In the United States one in 700
babies are born each year with this chromosomal abnormality. We at Programa
pro Niños Incapacitados del Lago see
many Down Syndrome children in those
we assist, and while the percentage in
Mexico is lower than in the States (one in
every 445 births), from one perspective,
it appears to be higher here.
Down Syndrome is usually identified
at birth or shortly thereafter, normally
because of physical characteristics of the
baby: low muscle tone, a single crease
across the palm of the hand, a slightly
flattened facial profile, and an upward
slant to the eyes
There are many problems to be
surmounted by a family with a Down
Syndrome child. These include health
issues—heart problems, asthma, hyper- or hypothyroidism, convulsions, eye
problems, blood anomalies and even
cancer--and developmental issues: slow
learning being the primary one. There is
no cure or specific treatment for Down
Syndrome, but early intervention is very
important as most Down Syndrome babies are more like “normal” children than
they are different. They need to be stimulated more with physical, speech and
developmental therapies. They need

social interaction with family and other
children.
Santiago is fortunate to have a loving
family who from the start recognized the
need for their intervention in their son’s
early life. To date, he is taking medicines
to avoid seizures and is being taken to
early therapy sessions with other Down
Syndrome children. His parents also attend “seminars” so they can understand
the complexities of Santiago’s condition and will know how to react to any
changes or special needs; they also learn
how to continue his therapy at home.
Programa pro Niños Incapacitados del
Lago has been paying for these medicines and for the transport to and from
therapy sessions in Guadalajara.
If you would like to learn more about
us and our organization, please join us
the second Thursday of each month at
10:00 a.m. in one of the meeting rooms
at the Hotel Real de Chapala in La Floresta. We always present one of “our”
children prior to the business meeting.
Please feel free to bring a friend. REMEMBER PLEASE: Niños Incapacitados’ annual Fundraiser Dinner/Dance—this year
“All Aboard the Orient Express”—will be
held Thursday, March 14, from 6:00 until….. at the Hotel Real de Chapala Lakefront Patio. Live and Silent Auctions, buffet dinner, dancing, no-host bar. Tables
of 10 are encouraged. See you there!

Saw you in the Ojo 23

IINFALLIBLE
NFALLIBLE T
THERAPY
HERAPY
A (therapy) dog lifts you up and never lets you down!

W

hat do you get when
you bring children,
dogs, and books to-

gether?
You get happy, confident children
who love to read. Children are introduced to the wonderful, magical word
of books in a positive and unique way.
In no time at all, the reading skills of
most children will improve.
ARDATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Children Reading to Dogs
program encourages children to
read by providing a non-judgmental
listener and furry friend to read. A
friend who will not laugh at them if
they make a mistake or stumble over
a word, but rather lie next to them
and enjoy listening to the story being
read.
Research indicates that children
with low self-esteem are often more
willing to interact with an animal than
with another person.
With this program, children are
reading not just to any dog, but to a
therapy dog. These dogs are trained
and together with their owner-handler form a team. They are ideal reading companions, who listen attentively and are not intimidating, unlike
classmates. The petting and other
loving interactions between the child
and the dog as they share a story are
an additional therapeutic benefit. Another bonus of the program is that
it encourages children to be responsible and loving towards animals.
ARDAT (Ajijic Rotary Dog Assisted
Therapy), an initiative of the Rotary
Club of Ajijic, has become an ongoing
community program that provides
therapy dog teams for visiting institutions and various educational purposes.
ARDAT therapy dogs are also deployed to comfort victims of disasters.
In over two years, ARDAT therapy
dog teams have made more than
1300 visits to Lakeside assisted living and nursing homes, orphanages,
libraries and schools.
What is Dog Assisted Therapy?
Dog-assisted therapy is the utilization of dogs in a therapeutic context

24

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

to provide, joy, comfort, and motivation. It has been proven clinically that
through petting, touching, talking
and reading to animals, a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
blood pressure is lowered, stress relieved, and depression eased.
What is a Therapy Dog? While
many dogs provide love and companionship in the home, not all dogs are
suitable or have the temperament to
be a therapy dog. A therapy dog (not
to be confused with an assistance
dog or service dog) is obediencetrained, has an outstanding disposition, excellent manners, is calm and
well behaved, wants to visit people,
and loves children.
ARDAT therapy dogs are pets
owned by people with a desire to
help increase the quality of life in our
community. A dog and his/her owner
have to be close partners in order to
make a successful therapy dog team.
The dogs are screened for temperament, health, manners and attitude.
Each ARDAT dog is fully vaccinated,
and carries a health certificate from a
registered veterinarian.
ARDAT is looking for volunteers
with dogs that are suitable to work
with children. Many local children
have reading problems. In municipal schools, this is often associated
with issues at home (abusive parents,
neglect by parents because of alcoholism, drugs, poverty. etc.). Many
children are not even interested in
reading, simply because they are
not introduced to it at home. Consequently, as much as 33% of children
have reading difficulties. ARDAT helps
children begin building skills for the
future by encouraging them to read
and showing them how much fun
reading can be. ARDAT wants to encourage schools to implement the
Reading to Dogs program, not only
to help children improve their reading skills, but also to help keep them
off the streets. For more information,
please contact ARDAT Director Julianna Rose at 766-5025, or ARDAT Coordinator Cindy Paustian at 766-5951.

D

ear Sir:
Feeling compassion for
another life-form, be it dog,
cat, horse, donkey, or the animals and
birds that we human beings eat, is a
fine sentiment to nurture in any one of
us; the people who take this one step
further, who rescue animals off the
street, who find and give them homes,
are to be applauded.
However, when bringing a pet into
the home, let’s say a dog or a cat, the
adopting owner should consider that
with every animal come responsibilities
to both animal and neighbour. This
is especially evident in the case of
dogs: not only does the dog require
neutering, feeding, grooming, bathing,
as well as human companionship; but
it also requires training with regular
daily exercise walking together with
its owner outside of the containment
of house and walled garden, where
the dog is free to offset the boredom
of being contained indefinitely. A dog
that is not exercised daily, that is always
confined, and goes un-trained, will
become a habitual ‘yapper’, barking
from boredom, simply for the sake of
barking.
This is where the owner, in
adopting a dog, should be prepared
to accept responsibility towards his
neighbours who, if the dog is not
stopped, must endure the continuing

and unnecessary harassment of a
‘yapper’ in the neighboring yard. Dogs
are hugely intelligent (often, it seems,
more so than their owners), responsive
to reward and affection, loyal and easily
trained when the Will to do so is present
in the owner. It is written into history
that there is no surer way of making bad
neighbours, even enemies for life, than
having an untrained ‘yapping’ dog next
door. Is it worth it? Surely in any closely
living community, there can be nothing
more precious than a good neighbour
– responsible and caring. Train the dog;
keep the peace; enjoy the neighbour!
John Cawood
johnclintoncawood@prodigy.net.mx

Saw you in the Ojo 25

Hearts at Work
A Column by James Tipton
“The Golden Key”

I

n the February issue of El Ojo
del Lago, I wrote about Emmet Fox’s “The 7 Day Mental
Diet”. Since that issue hit the stands,
hardly a day has passed without at
least one person telling me how important that “mental diet”—created
by one of the most influential New
Thought teachers of the first half of
the 20th century—was to them.
For this issue, then, I decided to
revisit Emmet Fox and this time to
write about his very popular idea,
“The Golden Key.” This concept, Fox
assures us, is “the golden key to harmony and happiness” and “it will get
yourself or anyone else out of any
difficulty.” “…it needs only a fair trial”
to prove this claim “is a just one.”
In what Fox calls “scientific
prayer,” “it is God who works, and
not you, and so your particular limitations or weaknesses are of no account in the process.” Basically, all
you need to do is to get yourself out
of the way.
Whether you hold religious views
or none at all is not important. And
“the actual method of working, like
all fundamental things, is simplicity itself. All you have to do is this:
Stop thinking about the difficulty,
whatever it is, and think about God
instead. This is the complete rule, and
if only you will do this, the trouble,
whatever it is, will disappear.” Fox
warns us to “not try to form a picture
of God, which is impossible. God is
present everywhere, has infinite
power, and knows everything.”
Here’s what you need to do: “The
rule is, to think about God. If you
are thinking about your difficulty,
you are not thinking about God. To
be continually glancing over your
shoulder in order to see how matters are progressing is fatal, because
it is thinking of the trouble, and you
must think of God and nothing else.
Your object is to drive the thought of
the difficulty out of your consciousness, for a few minutes at least, substituting for it the thought of God.
This is the crux of the whole thing. If
you can become so absorbed in this
consideration of the spiritual world
that you forget for a while about the

26

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

difficulty, you will find that you are
safely and comfortably out of your
difficulty.”
You can “golden key” a troublesome person or a difficult situation
by thinking this: “Now, I am going
to “golden key” John, or Mary, or
that threatened danger”: then proceed to drive all thought of John,
or Mary, or the danger out of your
mind, replacing it with the thought
of God.” Working this way, you are
not seeking to influence or change
that person, but it will prevent that
person “from injuring or annoying
you, and you do him nothing but
good. Thereafter, he is certain to be
in some degree a better, wiser, and
more spiritual person.” Repeat this
operation several times a day. “Be
sure, however, each time you have
done it, that you drop all thought
of the matter until next time. This is
important.” Do the process then dwell
no further upon it. Do not talk to others about what you are doing.
Be quiet, but insistent. Repeat, if
you like, a statement that appeals to
you, something simple like, “God is
with me.” “Do not try to think in advance what the solution to your difficulty will be.” This “will only delay
the demonstration. Leave the question of ways and means to God.” You
do your part. God will never fail to
do his. “The Golden Key” is still in
print and it is also available as a free
e-book at http://www.tigerseyedowsing.com/ds/other/golden_key.
pdf and as a free
recording on YouTube narrated by
Heather
McCauley Nőell at http://
www.youtube.com/
watch?v=wbK4_
yMFIQc.
Jim Tipton

Saw you in the Ojo 27

On Loving Elvis
By Margaret Ann Porter

R

ick says that Elvis Presley
died young because he
had no self-esteem and
was one of the most tender-hearted
souls you’d ever know – a fatal brew
of psychological traits bottled up in
a beloved musical giant.
Back the 60s and 70s, Rick played
the guitar and keyboard in successful cover bands on the rock and blues
circuits across the USA and in Europe.
The bands often opened for superstars – which he recalls as truly thrilling
– so he sometimes found himself in the
cloud of musicians that orbit around
super-novas like Elvis.
One day in the era when Elvis had
plumped out into the white jumpsuit,

28

Rick walked in on one of his private rehearsals. A few people lingered in the
doorway while a stern presence stood
behind Elvis, watching as he finished
up a gospel song.
“There was no sweeter sound than
to hear Elvis at the piano, singing gospel,” says Rick.
After the song that day, Elvis lifted
his worried face toward his minders and, in a voice timid and anxious,
asked, “Was that alright?”
“I soon learned that ever since his
earliest days of fame, Elvis didn’t think
he was good enough and he didn’t
think he was worth anything as a person.” Thus afflicted, Elvis’ associates exploited his need for approval, and his

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

generous nature. After he’d become
addicted to food and prescription
drugs, Rick says, “… these same people
made sure that he had uppers to wake
and downers to sleep, and that it was
okay to eat four hamburgers at one sitting. He didn’t have much help from
his so-called friends.”
Rick cites Elvis’ death as the all-time
music tragedy. “It was a huge loss to the
music world. But more, Elvis was one of
the most decent men in the business,
and kind-hearted beyond belief. He
was known to hold the hands of dying people for hours because they told
him that it eased their pain. And, he
did not take his fame seriously at all.”
Evidently, young Elvis’ shriek-inducing lip curl had started out as a joke between him and his band mates. “He’d
say to the guys, ‘Watch this,’ and he’d
turn around and curl his lip at the girls
and they’d go crazy. But he thought it
was funny rather than complimentary
– it startled and amused him.”
I was a late-comer to Elvis, having
been born in the waning hours of the
50s, but as soon as I became aware
of him, I thought him quite beautiful:
Glossy hair that swept over his forehead whenever a song invoked passion, eyes that laughed so loud you
could almost hear them, and a smile
that puckered the most kissable dim-

ples ever poked into a man.
I could not help but feel this way
because my father had allowed me to
watch “Elvis,” his 1968 live-recorded
comeback special on NBC. My youthful sexual urges bloomed during that
very broadcast. But the girlish fantasies that arose from my new adoration
seemed somehow safe and promising:
For many nights afterward I fell asleep
to a vision of Elvis and our twin boys
playing ball on Graceland’s fine lawn.
He died when I was 19 and I stuck
the memory of our affair somewhere in
the sweeter regions of my mind. Since
then, I have thought of Elvis as a fine
musician whose talent was perhaps
eclipsed by an almost supernatural
magnetism.
It is evident that most high-wattage musicians have been asked to contort the instrument – their very being
– in such a way as to attract consumers
who will buy tickets and recordings.
For some, this ‘branding’ process is a
happy exchange of muse for hardearned cash; for others, it’s a violation
of the tender energy that informs their
song. Misdirected, these latter artists
too soon fade away.
In his career, Elvis practically became the Coca-Cola of music – ‘the real
thing,’ everywhere and loaded with sugar. Still, within the confines of always
being Elvis, he transitioned from a
rock’n roll giant to appealing film actor
to critically acclaimed contemporary
music star, everything reverberating
across a set of vocal chords honed on
old-time gospel, and through an inner
goodness that just doesn’t come from
here.
“Most people don’t give him
enough credit,” says Rick. “Elvis was a
gifted vocalist and pianist – he was entirely musical in his soul, but he always
hesitated in human self-doubt. He suffered a lot. God, I loved him.”
(Ed. Note: Margaret is a full-time
resident of Ajijic. Among other things,
she enjoys chatting with Rick at the Early
Bird Café.)

Saw you in the Ojo 29

By Paul Jackson
paulconradjackson@gmail.com

T

he American Ambassador
to Canada insists President
Barack Obama’s commitments made in his State of the Union
Speech on battling climate change
apply to Canada as well as the USA.
Yup, that is David Jacobson ‘s interpretation of Obama’s initiatives.
Now this is both fascinating - and
frightening, for how can one sovereign
independent, and supposedly democratic nation, dictate the internal policies
of another sovereign, independent and
definitely democratic nation?
But here’s a macabre chuckle: Compared to Canada’s tough environmental
policies, the USA is an environmental
cesspool.
Forget the Hollywood campaigns
against the Keystone pipeline, or that
prominent U.S. environmentalists, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., regularly
visit the most pristine areas of Canada
- such as Banff National Park and Jasper
National Park - to bitch and whine about
Canada’s supposedly poor environmental record - what is a U.S. president doing dictating Canada domestic policies
to Canadian federal and provincial governments? Governments over which
Obama has no authority whatsoever.
Talk about flim-flam. Sounds like a touch
of Elmer Gantry rhetoric.
Truth is, it is estimated 30% of Canadian jobs and its economy depends on
energy development. Does Washington really expect Canada to throw 30%
of Canadians out of jobs and cut federal and provincial revenues by 30% on
some fool-hardly scheme? What tools
does Obama plan to use to force Canada
to adopt these proposed sham environmental standards?

30

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Paul Jackson

Does Obama and the Hollywood
set really expect Canada to destroy its
economy?
If so, we just won’t do it.
We already have ‘carbon capture’
laws - laws far beyond any others in the
world. In the Alberta oil sands - an area
larger than the state of Florida - strip
mining reclamation projects are also far
beyond any others in the world. Go up
to the oil sands, and you’ll be amazed
how the mined land has been returned
to its original natural standards. It’s the
law, and the oil companies are making
so much money they don’t mind paying
for returning these huge swaths of land
to the standards they were before mining began.
So what’s Obama up to besides trying to interfere in another sovereign,
democratic nation’s internal policies?
Could it be he has no idea what he is
talking about? Likely. Or could it be he is
just playing to his own fanatic environmental audience. Even more likely.
What we do know is Obama - who
has spent less than 36 hours in Canada in
his entire lifetime - knows nothing about
Canada, its political system, and its economic system, and much less about its
environmental laws.
It’s an absolute disgrace. And you
can bet Canadians are not going to let
Obama dictate how they should live
and govern their own country. At best,
Obama is being naive and is absolutely
ignorant about his own nation’s closest
ally; at worst, he really believes he can
remake Canada in his own narcissistic
image.

Saw you in the Ojo 31

MY EULOGY
By Neil McKinnon

R

ecently, I attended a Celebration of Life that was
held for Chad Lowenbear,
a neighbour, who had died tragically in an automobile accident. Many
of Chad’s friends and family spoke and
all had something laudatory to say
about his life and accomplishments.
He truly was a wonderful person, beloved by all.
However, due to the fact that I’m
a shallow individual with only occasional deep thoughts, my mind began
to wander in the direction of my own
accomplishments, and as it wandered
it started to wonder ... what would be
said at a celebration of my life?
I couldn’t shake the feeling that because I’m a very modest person, many
of the mourners attending a function
in my memory may not know the real
details of my history. Not all of my accomplishments are available on Wikipedia or elsewhere on the internet.
Therefore, I thought that I should do
all of my admirers a favor and prepare
my own eulogy, obituary and epitaph
so that they are readily available when
the unhappy day arrives.
Eulogy for Neil (to be used at the
appropriate time)
Universally admired author, Neil
McKinnon, whose works have been
translated into 102 languages and over
300 dialects will be missed on all continents. Nominated numerous times
for Nobel, Giller and Booker prizes, he
was a shoe-in for each had he not been
disqualified because of some petty
complaints about plagiarism that were
raised by other nominees who were no
doubt jealous of Neil’s literary abilities.
Considered one of the great philanthropists of modern times, Neil not
only anonymously gave away a fortune to alleviate poverty in the world,
but working quietly, without fanfare,
he developed home remedy cures for a
variety of medical conditions including
toenail fungus, restless leg syndrome,
itchy ears, male menopause, heel spurs
and liver spots. A modest person, Neil
has always stayed in the background,
letting others take the credit. That is

32

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

why his name is not associated with
breakthroughs in the fight against
major diseases like polio and aids. He
was on the verge of announcing cures
for cancer and obesity when his final
mortgage came due. Never one to rest
on his laurels, Neil, in his spare time,
also developed much of the theory
that led to the many successes of the
U.S. Space Program.
Less well-known than his philanthropic and scientific endeavours
were his peace-making and negotiating skills. Many conflicts including the
Korean war, the Suez crisis, Vietnam
and the Falkland Islands hostilities
would still be raging were it not for his
behind-the-scenes efforts. To this day,
few people are aware that as a lad of
seven he helped negotiate the end of
World War II. He always turned down
lifetime achievement awards as well
as recognition from other countries.
As a result, the George Cross, Croix de
Guerre, Order of Lenin, Order of Canada and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are all absent from his résumé.
Neil had a great talent for the arts
and were it not for an unfortunate incident involving a glass of beer and a razor, he would have made his Carnegie
Hall debut in his early teens. Many do
not know of Neil’s acting ability or that
he was offered and turned down some
of the major roles in movie and Broadway history. Kept busy advising world
leaders, he was unable to perform as
Lawrence of Arabia, Forest Gump, Professor Higgins or Elmer Gantry. His innate shyness and modesty made him
refuse honorary Oscars every year
from 1960 onward.
Sadly, Neil will not be buried with
his Olympic medals. He voluntarily
returned them and had his name expunged from the record books because, as a youngster, he had once
taken a cod liver oil pill and he felt that
this gave him an unfair early developmental edge. Few know that at one
time Neil simultaneously held world
records in weightlifting, figure skating and synchronised swimming. He
also loved baseball and was a fan all

of his life. From behind the dugout, he
passed advice to Terry Francona that
allowed the 2004 Boston Red Sox to
win their first World Series in 85 seasons.
It is rumored that the Pope himself
has declared that Neil should be canonized as the first non-Catholic saint.
He will be missed.
A Newspaper Obituary for Neil
(Prepared by one who knew him well)
It is with great sadness and sorrow
that we announce the sudden passing of Neil McKinnon. He died while
surrounded by family and friends.
Hospitalized for haemorrhoids, it was
thought that he was recovering. However, after he recited, for the twentythird time, the long story of how he
was robbed of a no-hitter in little
league, someone assisted Neil on his
final journey by placing a baseball in
his mouth and holding his nose. His
last words were, “mmmmmfff.”
Neil was born, lived and then died.
It is believed that some of his accomplishments occurred during the middle stage. He is not survived by anyone
of importance and no one of significance predeceased him. He leaves behind 102 cats and his wife Judy who
said, “I truly loved him. Sure, I looked at
other men, we all do ... and sometime
I rubbed, fondled and stroked ... but I

reserved my heart for Neil.”
Neil will be cremated and his ashes
will be scattered along the front row of
the stage at Miss Mandy Moist’s Erotic
Burlesque House where he spent some
of his happiest hours. An informal celebration of Neil’s life will be held during
happy hour at the same establishment.
A medley of Neil’s favourite tunes will
be sung by his fraternal brothers in the
Loyal Order of Beaver Chasers. In lieu
of flowers, please send nasty letters
to book reviewers and in Neil’s memory tuck at least one bill into Bambi
Banger’s G-string.
An Epitaph for Neil (Written by his
wife who, after hearing the foregoing
eulogy, was heard to exclaim, “My God,
they’re burying the wrong man!”)
Here inside this bone-yard heap,
Lies Neil McKinnon, fast asleep.
It matters not if he’s up or down,
He’ll talk a lot of his own renown.
And though it stretches credulity,
He’ll keep lying for eternity.
(Ed. Note: Neil
is the author of
Tuckahoe Slidebottle
which was a finalist
for the Stephen Leacock Humour Award
and the Howard
O’Hagen Short Fiction Award.)
Neil McKinnon

Saw you in the Ojo 33

PROFILING
P
ROFILING T
TEPEHUA
EPEHUA
By Moonyeen King

Part III

M

aternal Mortality in
Mexico has an Indigenous face. Official statistics demonstrate Indigenous women have three times
higher risk than non-Indigenous
women of dying because of
causes related to maternity.
Maternal mortality is higher in
Mexico than any other countries
with economic indicators. Stated
by World Bank 2001.
“We have an unacceptable level of
maternity deaths” noted Dr. Jose Angel
Cordova Villalobos, Minister of Health
2007. Report from UNICEF, 2009. Educating girls and young women is one
of the most powerful ways of breaking
poverty traps and creating a supportive environment for Maternal and Newborn health. Early pregnancies, STD
(sexually transmitted diseases), sexual
violence and other gender related
abuse, increases the risk that girls drop
out of school. This entrenches the cycle
of gender discrimination, poverty and
the high rates of maternal and neonatal
mortality.
The Tepehua Free Maternal Health
program, located in Tepehua Centro
Comunitario, Chapala, Mexico, was
given a grant by Rotary International
to assist in the care of women’s education and examinations at the Tepehua
Clinic. The results were staggering. In
the year 2012, 350 pap smears were
taken, out of which 280 had to be treated for STD, which if untreated leads to
cervical cancer. Forty women agreed
to I.U.D insertion. Of the 350 breast exams, 30 were referred to Guadalajara for
mammograms, which unchecked leads
to breast cancer. Seven hundred and
eighty women attended the counseling
for abuse and family planning.
It was noted that maternal mortality declined drastically in the United
States after the Women got the right
to vote. When women get the political
voice, their lives also became a higher
priority. Professor Miller of Stanford
Univ. wrote: ”Within a year of suffrage
law enactment, patterns of legislative
roll call voting shifted, and local public
health spending rose by 35 per cent.
Child mortality declined 8-15 per cent.
Nationwide, these reductions translate into roughly 20,000 averted child
deaths each year.”

34

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Economist Abhiti Banerjee more
recently, examined spending amongst
the poor. Mexico was 8 per cent instant
gratification on alcohol and fiesta, and
2 per cent on education...even though
education is the most consistent escalator out of poverty. Studies suggest,
when women are in control of spending, less money is spent on instant gratification, and child health and nutrition
improves.
Sometimes, sexual violence is committed by a stranger. Most often it is
someone the woman knows. A date or
an intimate partner such as a husband
or ex, or a male friend or collegue. It occurs in all socioeconomic, educational,
racial and age groups. A problem world
wide. The issue of power and control
is the root of domestic violence. Incest
with a child by an older family member leads the child to believe it is normal behavior. The worst thing about
this crime is when the child realizes it
is not normal, and there is no support
system left. The family unit is the support system, take that away and there
is nothing. This writer worked at a child
abuse center in Arlington. Texas. The
youngest victim of sexual abuse by a
family member was three months old.
A less talked about abuse is “Reproductive Abuse.” It is a way to control
by keeping her pregnant. A famous
case in the States: A preacher kept his
wife pregnant even though the doctors warned him, she was not mentally
stable enough. Unfortunately she was
jailed for life after drowning all her children in the bath tub. Another drove her
children into the lake in a locked car.
These are not unique cases.
With all the documentation on the
subject of the oppression of women,
their rights and their strengths...what is
taking so long? Why is Roe verses Wade
politically still being fought? Why is

the horror of female genital mutilation
around the world, not being dealt with?
Warrior Marks, written by Alice Walker,
as late as 1993 addressed this. “Oppression and the sexual blinding of women.”
In 2012, a politician in Washington,
arguing against a women’s right to
abortion, even in the case of rape, stated “If a women becomes pregnant after
the act of rape, it is God’s will.” A statement that will go down in infamy.
In 1992, Sandra Day O’Connor wrote
“The ability of women to participate
equally in the economic and social life
of a nation has been facilitated by their
ability to control their reproductive
lives.” The empowerment of women
through education and family planning.
The Tepehua Community Center,
just west of Chapala, has counseling
and fifty plus women go to listen to
lectures on self esteem, every week,
and how to handle situations of abuse
by trying to defuse them. Abuse starts
with small steps. Criticism is usually the
first one, cutting off friends and family,
and threats that the abuser will hurt the
children.
Poverty and lack of education exacerbates abuse. The story is the same
in every barrio across Mexico. Women
too are abusers, for the same reason.
Frustration and the toil of having five to
seven children, no education or money

coming in for the table, can drive the
most nurturing of women to strike
back...in her case, the target is usually
the children.
Education and Family Planning information can change this cycle.
It is an appalling situation that
in 2013 women are still fighting for
the right to choose. That they are still
a chattel that is owned by their spouse
or partner.
The writer wonders what the standing of Roe v Wade would be like today,
if it were the men who had the babies?
(Mexico and its stand on abortion
will be discussed in another issue.)
moonie1935@yahoo.com

If eyes are windows to the soul, doors
must just as surely express the soul of a
home.

Doors have special significance in Spanish colonial architecture, which
cloisters intimate living spaces in courtyards hidden from the street.

36

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

It’s easy to pass these doors every
day without giving them a second
thought.

As a collection, though, they paint a
unique picture of the village that’s authentic, personal, and spontaneous.
Doors here come in all shapes, sizes
and colors, and are crafted in materials
ranging from wood to wrought iron.
Some are simple and others ornate.
Some are formal and others whimsical.
Some are reflections of the Old World and others are distinctively Mexican.
Some merely hint at what lies behind,
and others provide a teasing glimpse.
It can be as entertaining to speculate
on what lies behind them as to actually
know.
If
you
haven’t seen
these, enjoy
them.
If you’ve
seen some of
them in passing, take a second look because there’s
often
more
here than can
be taken in
with a single
glance.

PAST EVENTS
February 13 there was a performance of
House, a dark and hilariously funny one-man
show written by one of Canada’s most accomplished playwrights and film directors, Daniel
MacIvor. It was performed by award-winning Canadian actor, Alan Jordan, whose credits include
many top TV shows. House recently premiered in
San Miguel de Allende and the show will also tour
in Guanajuato, Leon and Mexico City.
Donations can be made at Viva Mexico ResAlan Jordan in House
taurant in San Juan Cosala, where the show was
presented, by contacting Arni or Rosie Mogseth at 376 – 766 – 2516, or by going to
the website for Foundation for Lake Chapala Charities where payment can be made
by credit card or PayPal. The website is http://www.lakechapalacharities.org. Checks
can also be made out to the Foundation for Lake Chapala Charities (write on check:
for Operation Feed) and mailed to APDO #847, Ajijic, Jalisco 45920. The Foundation for Lake Chapala Charities is a U.S. 501C3 recognized charity and, therefore, tax
deductible for US citizens.
February 20, Alejandro Grattan presented his epic historical novel The
Dark Side of the Dream at the Oasis
Cloud Café. The story is about Mexican
migration into the US during World War
II, the challenges and graciousness in
adapting to a different culture and their
great contributions during the war. Despite their astounding accomplishments,
hundreds of thousands were deported
through a program called Operation Wetback. This engrossing book is ideal as a
movie or TV series, and with the growing
numbers of Latinos in America, it should be. This monumental 421-page epic is on
amazon/Kindle and for sale as a quality soft-back.
COMING EVENTS:
The wacky, wonderful Vicky Banning, a
novel by Allen McGill, centers on a new Auntie
Mame character who returns a little older, certainly wiser and undeniably more outrageous.
From posh Newport, entertaining on luxury liners
to war-threatened Europe, smuggling children to
safety, Vicky is a force majeure. Political skullduggery is foiled, a strip tease for charity succeeds, and
her entertaining in a gay bar during a Halloween
costume party nearly gets her arrested.
Winner of El Ojo Del Lago’s “Pamala L. Hall
Award for Best Novel of the Year in paperback,
Vicky has charmed her way on-line to debut, newly
polished, covered and invigorated. Minnie, another
of Allen’s works, won the same award for Best Short
Story of the (following) Year. Both are now available
on-line in all formats at Amazon.com, B&N.com
(Barnes & Noble), Smashwords.com, GoodReads.
Novel by Allen McGill
com and JMSbooks.com. Price $2.99 USD. Praise
the author at malvas41@yahoo.com.
March 1 at 7:30, March 2 at 7:30, March 3 at 3p.m., March 4 at 3p.m. AND
7:30, and March 5 at 7:30 The Fantasticks reappear by popular demand. My,
My, How Nice! Productions simply had to bring it back while the delightful original
cast was still available. Audiences were enchanted. Sixteen year old Marie Claire
Figadere, and seventeen year old Christian Garcia Duran play the young couple, and
Guadalajara singing sensation Lalo Muñoz-Zúñiga plays El Gallo. Rounding out the
cast are Ken Yakiwchuk, Roger Larson, Fred Koesling, John Ward and Valerie Jones.

38

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Roger Larson, Timothy G. Ruff Welch and
Judy Hendrick comprise the team of directors. Shows are at Plaza de la Ribera (with
more comfortable but limited seating). Tickets $250 pesos at Diane Pearl Colecciones,
Mia’s Boutique, or by emailing mymytickets@gmail.com.
March 12, 7 p.m. and March 13, 4 p.m.
Los Cantantes del Lago’s Spring Concert Americana features the Mexican
premiere of The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass by American composer Carol
Barnett. A bluegrass band has been assembled, using musicians from Mexico City,
Guadalajara and Ajijic. Concerts will be at
the newly renovated Auditorio de la Ribera,
bar one hour before each performance. Tickets $250 pesos at Diane Pearl Colecciones,
Mia’s Boutique, from Cantantes members or
by emailing cantantesdellago@gmail.com.
March 19, 7:30 p.m. at La Bodega
the Doo Wops will perform another concert, singing some of our most beloved
songs. Call early for reservations at 766 –
1002. The last two shows have been sellouts. Relive the songs from the 50s and 60s
with Jerry Morse, Jack Fallon and Luci Merritt. Listen, dance, or just swing and sway,
enjoy all.
March 21, 6:30 p.m. Jaltepec Centro
Educativo offers a three course dinner by its
gracious cooks/hostesses in training. Cost
is $350 pesos which goes to the training of
young women from homes that cannot afford to provide the girls with higher education. This training literally alters their lives
and those of their families. No host bar at
6:30, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, cocktail
music by Tim Welch. Dinner at 7:30: gazpacho soup, chicken stuffed with spinach and
broccoli or pork filet with mustard and pineapple. RSVP by March 13 to Linda Buckthorp
at 766 – 1631 or email backthorplm@gmail.
com. Ask about wine. Pick up tickets at Multiva (bank side) from Monica as of March 14.
March 15, 16 and 17 Naked Stage presents The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer,
directed by Jim Lloyd. The Normal Heart is
a largely autobiographical play by the author.
It focuses on the rise of the HIV/AIDS crisis in
New York City 1981 – 1984, as seen through
Americana, A Bluegrass Mass the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks, the
gay Jewish-American founder of a prominent
HIV advocacy group. Joseph Papp, who produced the original production of The Normal Heart in 1985, says of the play, “…it reveals its origins in the theater of Sophocles,
Euripides, and Shakespeare. In his moralistic fervor, Larry Kramer is a first cousin
to nineteenth-century Ibsen and twentieth-century Odets and other radical writers of
the 1930s. Yet, at the heart of The Normal Heart, the element that gives this powerful
political play its essence, is love – love holding firm under fire, put to the ultimate test,
facing and overcoming our greatest fear: death.” The play won the 2011 Tony Award
for Best Revival on Broadway. The Reading will be directed by Jim Lloyd.
The Naked Stage is located at #10A Rio Bravo. West on the carretera from Ajijic,
south on Rio Bravo, about 2 blocks down behind Daniel’s Restaurant on the east side.
Daniel’s is open for lunch and dinner with a no host bar available at 3p.m. Box Office
opens at 3:15 and the show starts at 4 p.m. Reservations guarantee a seat. EMail:
nakedstagereservations@gmail.com or phone Michelle: 765 – 6408.
March 10 – 11, 5 p.m. across from the El Dorado complex on the Libramiento,
there will be a Concert by Mac Morison with popular guest star Carol Bedford,
providing romantic music to enchant and delight you. The concert is to benefit the
Tepehua Comunitario Centro AC and will be held in a gorgeous private home. Parking, hors d’houvres, and no host wine bar will be provided for $350 pesos per person.
Invitations may be picked up at Diane Pearl Colecciones on Colon. For more information, email clippy1020@gmail.com or call 766 – 3865.
Popular local writer James Tipton is the most recent winner of the Penn
Cover Literary Award, for his story, “The Lot in Paraíso.” This award (judged by
the students) is given each month by the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA Program

Saw you in the Ojo 39

40

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Saw you in the Ojo 41

for the best short story (or creative
non-fiction or poetry) of 1000 words
or less. Read his story at http://whidbeystudents.com/2013/02/01/newfor-february-3/.
March 9 the Rotary Club of
Ajijic celebrates International
Women’s Day with an International Women’s Golf Classic at
the Chapala Country Club in Vista
del Lago. The tournament is open
to amateur lady golfers of all levels. There will be activities for nonplayers. Participants are limited.
Entry fee is $1,200 pesos including
green fees, golf cart, beverage cart
during play, a Women’s International
Golf Classic shirt, and a gift bag with
a souvenir cap.
Check-in at 11 a.m., Shot Gun
start at 12:30, golf clinics, celebrity picture signing, games for family members, ending with an Awards
Banquet featuring a Roast Pig DinHear Mac Morison sing, guest star ner and music by a local dance band
and award presentations for the
Carol Bedford
tournament winners. The highlight
will be an auction featuring a week’s stay (up to 5) at the luxurious Royal Cancun
beachfront resort.
For information, to become a sponsor, or to donate items for the gift bags, visit
the Rotary webpage at www.rotaryajijic.org or call Golf Classic organizers Rod Hensley at 766 – 5600, email hensleymex@gmail.com; Keith Foster at 766 – 1742 or
email procom2008@prodigy.net.
mx; Sandra Loridans at 766 –
2981 or email sandra.loridans@
gmail.com.
April 11, 9 a.m. sharp, there
will be is a shotgun start for the
joint NCA and Country Club de
Chapala Golf Tournament. The
CCC has decided to reinstate and
expand their Amigo Cup Tourney
which was last played several
years ago. CCC sponsors the children of their employees for school
expenses. Entry fee is $1200 pesos ($1000 pesos for members),
five people per team (each team
can be 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5). All players must register at the CCC
Pro Shop. Deadline to register is
April 9. Entry fee includes green
fee and cart rental, Continental
breakfast and Awards dinner (pig
roast or fish). Dinner and awards
ceremony tickets are $250 pesos.
Buy tickets at the Pro Shop, LCS
or Diane Pearls Colecciones. Lots
of great prizes for hole-in-one, lonPoster for NCA – CCC
gest drive and closest to the pin.
All proceeds to benefit Los Niños
Golf Tournament
de Chapala y Ajijic, AC for kids and
their futures.
Mulitple Events:
The American Legion post #7 schedule for October:
Sundays: 12 – 3 p.m. Legion grill burgers
Mar 9 – Fashion Show by Terri’s Tianguis
For information, call 765 – 2259 or www.americanlegionchapalapost7.org
Lakeside Little Theatre news:
Tickets are $200 pesos per seat, $250 for the musical. For full listing of shows, box
office and ticket information and to get email updates, go to www.lakesidelittletheatre.
com. Box office hours are 10 – 1 and one hour prior to each performance. Sunday box
office access is just prior to a show. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. with Sunday matinees at
3 p.m. To call box office: 766 – 0954.

42

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

March 23 – 31 the LLT presents Not Now, Darling by Ray
Cooney and John Chapman.
Director: Shirley Appelbaum. A
1960s style fur salon filled with
suspicious wives, philandering
husbands, mistaken identities
and scantily clad girlfriends, all
delivered fresh in a saucy, sophisticated style. Enjoy a drink
on the Angel Terrace, live piano
music in the lobby. Tickets on
sale March 21, 10 – 12, then
every day except Sunday.
The 49th Season plays at
Lakeside Little Theatre:
Local Hero – Written and
Directed by Lakeside resident
Neal Chekoway. A modern day
fable, based loosely on the
movie of the same name.
The Heiress –Directed by
Rosann Wilshere, a Period
Drama
Over The River and Through
the Woods – Directed by Ann
Swiston, a Comedic Drama
Blood Relations –Directed
Not Now, Darling
by Lynn Phelan, A Drama
Hooray for Hollywood! Written and Directed by Barbara Clippinger – a Musical
Social Security – Directed by Phil Shepherd, a Comedy
Production dates to be announced at or before Annual General Meeting March 20.
Next season, in response to both audience and volunteer wishes, Opening Night
will be Friday. Each show will start on Friday evening followed by an evening performance on Saturday and a Sunday Matinee. The theatre will be dark (closed) on
Mondays, giving cast and crews a rest. Shows will resume Tuesday evenings and run
through the following Sunday matinee.
All Current Saturday Opening Night Season Ticket Holders will be contacted soon
so they may change to Friday if they wish. Monday night season ticket holders will be
given first priority for new seats currently unsubscribed on any other day.
VIVA La Musica:
Bus Trips to “Live from the MET”
Teatro Diana
Mar 16 – Francesca de Rimini - Riccardo Zandonai (depart early at 9)
Apr 27 – Julius Caesar - Georg Friedrich Handel
300 Mx Pesos members ; 400 Mx Pesos non-members
Bus Trips to Jalisco Filarmonica Spring Season
Teatro Degollado
Mar 8 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 7; Conductor: Leslie Dunner
Mar 15 - De Falla: Interlude and Dance “La Vida Breve”; Rachmaninov:
Concert for Piano and Orchestra No. 3;
Dvorjak: Symphony No.7;
Conductor : Hector Guzman, Director
Emeritus
Soloist: Norman Krieger – piano
Mar 22 - Verdi : Ouverture “ La Forza Del
Destino” ;
LALO : Concert for Violoncello and Orchestra;
Tchaikowsky: Symphony No. 2
Conductor: Oriol Sans; Soloist: Alvaro
Bitran, violoncello
Tickets 250 Mx Pesos members; 350
Mx Pesos non-members
All buses depart from the Carretera near
Farmacia Guadalajara. Sunday buses at 10
a.m.; Friday departures at 4:30 p.m. – supper in Guadalajara before the concert. For
Saturday buses to “Live from The Met”, deFrancesca da Rimini
partures may vary; ask the time when buying the ticket. Tickets can be purchased at
- Riccardo Zandonai
LCS, Th – F, 10 to 12 ,or email Marshall at
mak1939@gmail.com. For additional information re departures, call Marshall at 766
– 2834.

Saw you in the Ojo 43

BLOODY EXPLOITATION!
By Bill Dean

“

A

men, amen I say unto
thee, unless a man be
born again of water and
the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God” (John 3:1-21).
If that is true, the Indians should have
thanked their lucky stars the Spanish
forced them to be baptized as Catholics. That is because most of the Indians were about to die. At the time
of the Spanish Conquest there were
about 20 million natives in Mexico –
by 1600 barely one million remained.
While there is disagreement
among the experts about the numbers, every authority agrees that the
16th century was a demographic
disaster for the native population of
Mexico. The treatment of the Indians
(including treatment of their children) working the plantations and
the silver mines was unimaginable.
Many of those who survived the work
died of smallpox, the plague, and
other diseases imported from Spain.
You know about Hernán Cortés.
You may not know about his arch
rival named Beltran Guzman. As
president of Mexico’s first audiencia,
Guzman planned to bring Cortés
to trial for mistreating the Indians.
He was hardly the one who should
have been pointing fingers. “Bloody
Guzman,” as he was known, and his
troops went on a slaughtering rampage of their own. The Indians they
didn’t slaughter they tortured to find

44

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

out where they could find silver and
gold. Guzman’s atrocities landed him
in a Spanish prison where he died,
but that didn’t deter others from following in his footsteps.
Torturing Indians had become
the Spanish method of getting rich.
Burning of feet, cutting off of hands,
dumping Indians into spike-filled
pits, depriving entire tribes of food
and water, and cutting up body
parts of dead Indians and feeding
the parts to survivors was how the
Spanish learned where the gold and
silver was. Monks described these
events to artists whose paintings and
sketches made a lasting record of
Spanish atrocities. Whole tribes could
be hung or burned to death. Infants
would be fed to the Conquistadors’
dogs. Stronger Indians were rounded
up and hauled off to the mines as
slaves.
We have been to the mines of
Zacatecas. The narrow tunnels spiral many layers into the mountains.
Inside these dark caves Indian men,
women, and children seldom saw the
light of day. Those who didn’t die in
the tunnels that caved in, or who survived falling from rope bridges and
rickety ladders, died from exhaustion
or bad lungs. Life in the mines, if anyone can call it living, was unbearable.
In the end, exploitation of the Indians proved to be the only way there
was for the Spanish to extract riches
from its colony. But that harsh reality
did not prevent some wishful thinking sparked by rumors of the fabled
“Seven Cities of Gold.” In 1539 Friar
Marco de Niza, a Franciscan priest,
reported to Spanish officials that he
saw one of them – Cibola – in what
is present day New Mexico. Acting on
that tip, in 1540 the Viceroy sent out
a search expedition led by his friend,
Francisco Vázquez Coronado. Bloody
Guzman may have held the record
for cruelty, but for being gullible the
prize should probably go to Coronado and the 336 members of his party.
Perhaps, on the other hand, there was
reason for optimism; after all, the tip
came from a priest; Spain had earlier

recovered vast riches from the Incas
of South America; the Aztec city of
Tenochtitlan proved to be a rich and
wondrous discovery. So why should
Coronado and his men be “Doubting
Thomas’s” about the Seven Cities of
Gold?
They struck off on horse-back with
visions of fame and fortune. But the
cloud of dust they left in their wake
might just as well have been blowing
in their faces. Everywhere they went
native villagers would tell Coronado
that the fabled cites were más allá
(farther on). The villagers must have
been pointing northward because

Coronado and his exhausted entourage got just about to present day
Wichita, Kansas. That, of course, was
400 years before Wichita became the
“Air Capital of the World.” The only action around Wichita back then were
roaming “shaggy cows” (buffalos).
Coronado finally gave up. His men
were angry and broke. The Viceroy
was not pleased.
And the fabled cities of gold and
wealth were never found because
there were not any. The dismal truth
was that exploiting the Indians was
the only way to do what Spain wanted to be done.

Saw you in the Ojo 45

(Ed. Note: With reference to Dr.
Crosby’s Letter to the Editor on page
74 of the February issue)
Dear Sir:
The observations offered by
Sir Winston Churchill and Senator
Goldwater affirm the high regard
that many leaders across the political spectrum, including President
Obama, have expressed for President
Truman. To suggest that Henry Wallace, had he ascended to the presidency, would have somehow avoided the horrendous decision to use
the atomic bomb against a recalcitrant Japan is highly speculative. Use

46

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

of atomic weapons at the time saved
countless lives, and, in fact, saved far
more Japanese than American lives.
Conservative estimates at the
time were that Operation Olympic,
the invasion of Kyushu, would have
cost 500,000 US casualties, and Operation Coronet, the invasion of
Honshu, another 500,000. Japanese
citizenry, fully indoctrinated by the
leadership, were being prepared
to resist with bamboo spears. The
use of the two atomic bombs saved
thousands of Japanese lives.
While evasions and untruths have
all too often characterized presidential statements over the years,
President Truman was impeccably
honest and would hardly have lied
about the wrenching decision that
confronted him. Earlier, the Tokyo
Fire Raid cost more Japanese lives
than either atomic bomb, and yet
the ruling clique refused to surrender. It took the second atomic bomb,
dropped on Nagasaki, to convince
the leadership that Japan faced total destruction if it did not end hostilities. Throughout the war in the
Pacific, Japanese soldiers had time
and again fought to the death rather
than surrender, often even committing suicide, a practice foreshadowing the infamous Kamikaze attacks
as US forces neared the home islands.
While it is easy for some to criticize
Mr. Truman’s agonizing decision now,
realistic alternatives are not provided
because they have never existed.
Henry Wallace exhibited signs of
mental instability, a factor in President Roosevelt’s desire to replace
him on the ticket in 1944. A major
policy in his 1948 presidential campaign was an often stated acquiescence regarding Joseph Stalin’s postWorld War II expansions into Europe.
It is difficult to imagine his initiating policies equivalent to the Berlin
Airlift, Truman Doctrine, Marshall
Plan or NATO.
Dr. Lorin Swinehart

GRINGAS & GUACAMOLE
By Gail Nott
Erin Go Loco

T

ake my word for
or it;
it; yo
it
y
you
ou
can’t get there from
from
fro
fr
om here;
her
ere;
well, not quickly.
y. Go
y.
Go fi
figu
gure;
gure
gu
ure
re;;
two hours from Guadalajara
ara
ra tto
o Ho
H
Housous
us-mH
Ho
ous
usto
ton
to
n tto
o
ton, maybe three hours from
Houston
m Newark
New
N
Newa
Ne
ewa
warkk to
to
Newark, then six hours from
Shannon, Ireland. Then why did
d d it take
k 25
hours? I do not age well.
Once on the ground, I was presented
with a toy car and warned to stay on the
left side of the road. I am still mentally capable of putting my shoes on the correct
foot so then what part of my brain is dysfunctional? I repeatedly found myself in
the right lane cursing at the drivers who
were coming straight at me. After running up on the sidewalk twice and leaving the passenger side mirror crumpled
on a car in Outtergard, fear must have
fired the appropriate synapses.
Aisles at a grocery store are wider
than the country roads of Connemara
County, Ireland. Most of the roads have

no center- lines; there is an abundance of
blind curves and some fool coming the
other way on your side of the road. There
are no shoulders; your choice is to hit the
long-haired sheep grazing beside the
roadway, pepper the side of the car with
cliff boulders or stop and have a pint. This
was not a hard choice.
Irish pubs are infamous and we
weren’t disappointed. The pint of Smithwick was only slightly warmer than the
Bushmills I ordered with ice. Right, forget
ice, it just dilutes the good Irish whiskey.
A dim room smelling of peat, tweed
hats, Wellingtons, heavy, wool sweaters,
wrinkled faces and gnarled hands; fuel
for anyone’s imagination. I thought our

waiter was deaf when he kept asking us
to repeat our order of fresh oysters, mussels and chips. Flashing a grin he said,
“Oh, you’re Yanks are you now?” I was
to learn we do not all speak the same
Queen’s English.
First hint was forgetting where I was
and asking for the baño, blank look.
Then I tried restroom, no response. Getting crass, I said toilet, a shoulder shrug.
A lovely lady with pink cheeks, alabaster skin and strawberry red hair came to
my rescue. “Do ya need the water closet,
now dear?” Too bad she didn’t go with
me; the chain pull on these babies defies
an engineering degree.
You can’t get there from here; well,
not by train or airplane. We had planned
to visit Dublin. Our hosts at Cashel House
urged us not to drive. Aer Lingus is
booked weeks in advance by businessmen commuting between the northern
counties and Dublin. The railway system
is antiquated; we were unable to find a
train schedule or telephone number. Off
to Galway we “tootled” in our toy car.
Quay Street, Galway’s equivalent
to Rodeo Drive, is blocked off to motor
traffic. Naturally, we had booked a hotel
on Quay Street, parked blocks away in a
“motor hotel” that had only steps. Having
counter-balanced the toy car with our
massive suitcases, we were fearful of it
tipping over if they weren’t removed in

unison. The stares were plentiful as we
bumped and cursed our way to the hotel.
Policemen are visibly absent from
the busy streets of Galway. When two
armored personnel carriers stopped and
twelve Irish soldiers, with very large guns,
lined the street, I froze. I didn’t need
a writer´s imagination to think of the
worst. As the armored bank truck pulled
up, I think I began to breathe again.
The barren, wind-swept cliffs of
Connemara, the herds of sheep and
lambs grazing on yellow bracken, toilets I
couldn’t flush—lasting memories. Would
I go to Ireland again? Well, I don’t think
you can get there from here!

Saw you in the Ojo 47

View From The South Shore

By Kerry Watson
kerry.r.watson1@gmail.com

W

hilst the expatriate
community was busy
arguing about the
shortest and most economical route
for a causeway across the Lago de
Chapala to connect the north shore
to the south, the newly-elected Jalisco government of Aristóteles Sandoval
quietly and quickly erected a causeway across the widest part of the lake,
using Mezcala Island (also known as
Isla del Presidio) as an anchorpoint,
ending in Tizapan El Alto on the south
shore.
The toll bridge across the largest
lake in Mexico immediately became
known as the crown jewel in the new
government’s fast-track or “botes on
the ground” program for shovel-ready
projects to help improve the economy. The space-age style bridge was
constructed entirely from a Lego-like
material, allowing it to be assembled
at a factory by Lego experts in China,
sailed into port at Manzanillo, driven
by double semi-trailers from the port
and literally snapped into place after
its arrival at the Laguna.
The new government also cited
the strategic value of joining Mezcala
to land as justification for the bridge, in
case there is another revolution. “Now
that she is ours, we never want insurgents to use Mezcala as an outpost for
a year, as 800 Mexican soldiers did in
1816.” A famous and bloody battle was
fought on the island during the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
Only ruins of the buildings remain today.
The new all-blue bridge, in addition
to being largely unreported in the foreign press, has proven difficult to see
from the more populous western end
of the lake, visible mainly in shadow
at dusk when smog from Guadalajara
seeps over the low mountains at that
side of the lake. This has pleased Mexican environmentalists, who had worried about marring the wildlife habitat.
Unfortunately, the rare white pelicans
that winter every year on the south
shore near the bridge are also having
a difficult time seeing the bridge, and
several avian fatalities have already resulted. The government is considering
painting warnings on the top surfaces

48

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

of the bridge, so the pelicans can distinguish it from the water below.
The tollway will allow travelers to
cross the lake in one hour from Ajijic
to Tizapan when travel time to and
from the bridge is included, the same
amount of time that it currently takes
to drive around the lake in the westerly
direction. However, the government
will be able to collect 50 pesos per vehicle via the bridge, whereas currently
no money is collected when drivers
use the road around the lake.
“If there are no time savings,” asked
one astute reporter at the press conference, “what is the point?”
“There are NO topes on the bridge”
proudly retorted the director of the
project, Jorge Fernandez. “Drivers can
drive continuously at highway speeds
without tearing out the undercarriage
of their vehicles.” Posted speeds on the
causeway are 100 KM, although the
limit is not yet being enforced.
Simultaneous with the erection of
the bridge, the government installed
an additional several dozen topes on
the road around the lake. (Topes are
speed bumps that can appear or disappear overnight, causing undercarriage damage of the unsuspecting, or
inexplicable braking, depending on
whether they have come or gone.)
Although no foreigners we polled
have yet used or even noticed the
bridge, most said they had definitely
noticed the increased tope-building
program. “Yes, we’ve noticed a greatlyexpanded tope-building program” said
one resident of Jocotepec. “We had attributed it to the increased population
at our end of the lake, but now that we
understand about the new bridge, it
makes perfect sense.”
Free Toll Day: to increase foreign usage of the new toll bridge, Jalisco Governor Sandoval has decreed April 1st a
free toll day for all foreigners. Simply
show your immigration papers at the
tollbooth rather than depositing the
50 peso fee. Happy
April Fools’ Day from
Mexico to you!
MORE INFORMATION AND MULTIPLE
PHOTOS: http://www.
Kerry
K
erry Watson
elcebollo.info

Saw you in the Ojo 49

INSIGHT STRAIGHT
By Jim Tuck
Pretty Boy Floyd:
The “Marcos” of Mexico

T

he line between outlaw
and Robin Hood-style
populist guerrilla is often
difficult to draw. One man’s terrorist
is another man’s freedom fighter. Yet
certain criteria can be defined. Take
the case of a man who, though technically outside the law, never preys on
the poor, tears up mortgages, distributes stolen bank money to the needy,
and -in the end- leaves a privileged
sanctuary where everybody protects
him because he doesn’t want to subject these home folks to continuing
harassment from police and federal
agents.
Such a figure was Charles Arthur
Floyd, a good ol’ boy from the Oklahoma hills known to friends as Chock,
because of his fondness for Choctaw
beer. (The “pretty boy” label, which
he detested, was the gift of an enamored Kansas City madam.) In publicizing Depression outlaws, Hollywood
blunderingly focused on Bonnie and
Clyde. Floyd despised them as vicious
killers who victimized rich and poor
alike.
Floyd’s image problem was largely
rooted in his lack of education. Marginally literate, he would periodically
write ungrammatical letters to newspapers protesting (truthfully) that he
had not been involved in some brutal crime ascribed to him. (One of the
most touching was a letter thanking
an editor for comparing him to Jesse
James.) Unlike Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, whose education level

50

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

was roughly similar to his, Floyd never
amassed enough power to recruit a
band of intellectuals who could transform his primitive populism into a
coherent political program. After his
death he became a Marxist folk hero.
Woody Guthrie wrote a ballad about
him, but his popularity was pretty
much limited to left-wing literati.
There are striking similarities between Floyd and the once-famous
“Sub-Commandant Marcos”: both
champions of the downtrodden, both
chivalrous in combat, and both seemingly invulnerable in wild hill country where, to quote Chairman Mao
(speaking of other like-minded individuals), they “swim amid the population as a fish must in water.”
There are also striking differences.
Where Floyd was a true son of the
Cookson hills, the ski-masked Mexican
who formerly commanded an Indian
insurgency is a white urban intellectual who has been variously been
described as a university professor, a
disillusioned social worker, and a liberation theology-oriented Jesuit priest.
Whatever his identity, Marcos was
a master of media manipulation. He
gave interviews in English, French,
and Italian, appeared on “60 Minutes”
and attracted an international band of
cultural elitists to a convention where
he is able to expound his programs to
a world audience.
This is truly a case of public relations skills making the difference.
Where Marcos emerged as a global
Robin Hood, Charles
Arthur Floyd is still
fixed in the mind of
most Americans as a
small time redneck
bank robber who
died in a shootout
with the FBI.
Jim Tuck

THE AMERICAN DREAM
By Ron Knight
rknight@knightmediacom.com

M

any are awakening from
the American Dream,
which I can clearly see as
I’ve stepped away from it to live as an
Expat. The American marketing society
always needs something to fear, so it has
something to sell to a ravenous appetite.
Once it’s over with, that something sold
goes out of its way to become passé, or
be completely indigestible.
Right after the U.S. got hit at the
World Trade Center, we must have been
confusing the hell out of the poor Afghans over there on the other side of
the world. On the one hand, we were
sending over planes that were dropping
bombs, and on the other hand we were
sending over planes that were dropping… food. Because while we’re doing
collateral damage or killing people, we’d
like them to eat a little something… It’s
as if we had these poor Afghans over
there, their arms over their heads, and
they’re crying, ”Oh, No! More planes!
More bombs! What?! No, Hey! It’s raining
Rice-A-Roni… The San Francisco Treat!”
You’re not being told anything you
don’t know. The Pentagon spokesperson
actually said we were basically dropping
a carbohydrate diet of beans, with a nice,
vinaigrette dressing. How nice. How
well thought out. That’s basically what
we call “three bean salad.” Nobody eats
three bean salad. Look at the buffet lines
or go see the church events. Great looking stuff? It’s Ooh, ahh, umm… they get
to the three bean salad? Ooohh (sneering)…... and it’s a very lonely bowl. Unless of course, you also have on hand,
plenty of “Beano.”
I don’t know where advertisers get
the names of these products. Have you
seen this stuff, “Beano”? It’s the stuff that
the little drops are supposed to stop any
of that gas from coming out. Beano?!
Sounds like the reason you have the gas
in the first place. Hey, I’ve tried it. Works
great. Works really well. I think I took a
little too much though… my gas went
away; it sucked down my sinus congestion, and now I don’t even have any ear
wax.
What are they going to think of next?
They’ll make something that blocks everything or anything that people have a
problem with. You hear people say, “Oh, I
can’t stomach that guy!” There’s an idea.
You need something to block that? Here!
Have some “Idiot-O.” Or four little drops
of “Moron-O.” Four drops of “Estupido.”
Here’s a good one. Take five little drops

of “Ex-Wife-O.” Or four little drops of “Her
Attorney-O.”
We used to drop pills for fun. Now
we take them to stay healthy or sane
and we can mix them for conditions like
“here, try this: four little blended tabs of
“Your Idiot Boss-O.” I’ll tell you what I was
really worried about, is that people over
there were going to resent it, and start
sending people over here to the States
to start throwing food at us! Then we’d
have these poor people and tourists
scattering in Times Square, yelling, “Look
Out Marge! Watch out for the flying
Hummus! Of course, then you’d have
the spoiled native American New Yorker
who’d be saying, “Hey, I really wanted tahini, with that.”
Somewhere… sometime yet to
come, with a blend of
enough Beano and
the All New Doctor
Recommended Petroleum based Lax-a-Max,
America might just
pass its hair ball, while
having its cake and eatRon Knight
ing it too.

Saw you in the Ojo 51

AJIJIC CASH MACHINE PERSONALITIES
By Ed Tasca

N

ot long ago, the local bank
ATM (on Ajijic Plaza) ate
my debit card. And for a
frantic half-hour I tried to retrieve it. I
spoke amiably about how reliable and
agreeable the machine had been in the
past, and how it almost always drew
great, standing-room-only crowds.
This, while in the glass wall beside
me, I looked like the model for Edvard
Munch’s painting The Scream.
Regrettably, this all happened on a
Saturday, so there was nowhere to turn
for help, unless the man selling the cacahuates on the curb could spot me a
5,000 peso loan until Monday, a possibility that clearly defined my desperation.
Eventually, I must have accidentally
cracked a code by squashing all the buttons at once, while, in obviously perfect
harmony, uttering several profanities at
just the right pitch. Suddenly, the screen
changed and slowly, slowly, from the
little card insertion chamber my card
slid out like the tongue of a twelve year
old learning to French Kiss.
The Madam Cash Machine
It was then that I realized ATMs
have personalities. This particular one
always seemed so engaging, even
flirtatious. “Welcome,” would scrawl
against its large screen. It would then
say in its sassy, come-hither way: “We
take all debit cards.” “You are fully protected.” “Please insert your Card.” At the
same time, its card insertion chamber,
puckered out like puffy glowing lips, is
pulsating with a sultry green light. The
Heidi Fleiss of ATMs.
BUT… when it ate my card, it turned

52

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

nasty, clearly telling me, “You shove that
card into me without so much as a “Hi,
how ya doin?’” and you expect me to
jump and dish out! Don’t you dare take
me for granted! Got it, Mister?” Needless to say, given the machine’s obvious
foul mood (confirmed with the reminder: “Please do not let anyone help you.”),
I didn’t reinsert the card as it suggested,
even though its card insertion chamber
was still throbbing and trying to seduce
me.
The Master Sergeant Cash Machine
Instead, I rubbed my card clean on
my shirt and hurried to the broadly
popular main farmacia ATM, Ajijic’s warhorse cajera, with its big chest and hardworking air of rugged and masculine
dependability, probably an over-compensation for the fact that it sits next
to the dish detergent rack. Its soldierly
stance and instructions are all business:
Insert your card.
Press Continue.
Cost: 69 pesos.
Now, please insert your card again.
We’re reading your card chip.

Stand up straight and look like a
man.
While I watched the green chipscanning bar progress, I also got the
feeling this ATM was reading me, too,
with bio sensors measuring my pupil
dilation for hints of larceny. Then came
its dispassionate judgment: “Your card
couldn’t be read,” it told me, shoving my
card back out at me as though it were
disgusted with my shabby attempts at
identity theft. I tried it again, and again
it gave me the same snotty reaction.
This machine, I thought, has the personality of a stuffy bureaucrat whose wife
hasn’t touched him in years.
Okay, it’s getting late and now I’m
desperate for some machine, any kind
of machine, to prove that I’m not in
some quantum technological lockdown. So I weigh myself on the farmacia scale outside, and I find I weigh 104
pounds. Not only am I penniless, but I
seem to have shrunk down to the size
of a Rhesus Monkey —until I realized,
in my panic,I had converted the kilos to
pounds using the peso exchange rate.
With nothing but pesos on the
brain, I’m forced to move on. This time
to a machine I found by accident. The
ATM at Ajijic’s venerable supermarket
two blocks further east.
Macavity, the Mystery Machine.
This ATM is a character out of Film

Noir. You don’t see it right away when
entering the store. And most customers
have to have it pointed out to them. It
sort of lurks in the shadows in the righthand corner behind the plastic water
carriers. It’s thin and hungry-looking
but with an amicable pot-belly that welcomes you and a scrawny screen that’s a
dull shade of muted. It couldn’t be more
surreptitious, and gives the appearance
of a con selling “Rolex watches.” All it
lacks is a cape and a cocked fedora.
But I was so desperate I took a
chance and inserted my card. To my
surprise, without grandiose displays
of service promises, chip-reading bars,
stodgy instructions, people waving
money at me, it efficiently popped up a
screen that asked for my PIN and went
on to dispense my 3,000 pesos (which I
counted twice before leaving, or maybe
it was three times), while it then went
back to being the Macavity of Cash Machines.
Next time you approach an ATM, remember that, in a cash economy, they
can be the entire
banking system, and
they have no obligation to you, except to
hand out cash. And, if
you give off the right
vibes, not eat your
card.
Ed Tasca

Saw you in the Ojo 53

THE
T
HE L
LAST
AST K
KING
IN
NG O
OF
FM
MEXICO
EXICO
By Dr. Lorin Swinehart

O

n the morning of June
19, 1867, the Emperor
Ferdinand Maximilian
Joseph von Hapsburg-Lorraine
was stood before a firing squad
at Queretaro by forces loyal to
President Benito Juarez and shot,
ending his brief tenure as ruler of
Mexico. He had been proclaimed
emperor on April 10, 1864, with the
support of Napoleon III of France, and
only then after fierce fighting against
Mexican forces.
Looking at Maximilian’s portrait
today, we sense beneath the elaborate
facial shrubbery, fashionable at the
time, a hint of Hapsburg hauteur.
He was a member of the Hapsburg
dynasty that dominated Europe and
affected world politics for centuries.
But there was more to Maximilian
than meets the eye. A student of
the Enlightenment, fascinated by
such disciplines as botany and
entomology and a bit of an idealist,
he sincerely wanted what was best
for Mexico.
Maximilian dreamed of serving
a grateful people as a benevolent
monarch, enacting liberal reforms,
creating a nation of peace and plenty.
If anything, Maximilian was a wellmeaning but vague and befuddled
victim of historical forces beyond his
control. He was a tragic figure whose
naivete and good intentions were
manipulated by others, including
his wife Carlotta, ambitious to see
him elevated to the high place she
deemed him worthy of. In many
ways, he reminds us of Nicolas, the
last Czar of Russia.
Mexico won its independence
from Spain in 1821. There followed
the Mexican War with the United
States, during which Mexico lost vast
territories in the north, including
Texas and California. The Mexican
Civil War in 1858 left the country deep
in debt, its economy in shambles.
President Benito Juarez was unable
to meet the demands of European
bankers and governments. Aware
of America’s fatal slide into civil war
and the unlikelihood of its enforcing
the Monroe Doctrine, a coalition of
powers—Spain, the United Kingdom
and France—intervened militarily,
occupying the port of Buena Vista
and appropriating the revenues from
customs and duties.
Soon, Spain and the United

54

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Kingdom withdrew, leaving the
incursion in the hands of the scheming
French emperor Napoleon III. His
first attempt to invade Mexico was
stopped at Puebla, on May 5, 1862,
by militia armed with antiquated
muskets, an event celebrated yet
as Cinco de Mayo. Napoleon then
dispatched an additional 30,000
troops, pushing President Juarez
and his forces north toward the U.S.
border. Maximilian I was then placed
on the throne of Mexico.
Maximilian had insisted that he
would come to Mexico only if the
Mexican people chose him. They did
in an election rigged by the French.
He and the new Empress Carlotta
took up residence at Chapultepec,
the site of the former Spanish colonial castle, surrounded by the remnants of ancient Aztec gardens. Only
Native Americans enthusiastically
supported him, thinking he might
represent the return of Quetzalcoatl,
the god who had been promised by
Aztec myth to arrive from the east.
Most Mexicans were less enthusiastic. He was promised French military
support until 1867, a promise that,
like so many others, was not kept.
Soon, Mexico was even deeper in
debt, and the economy was worse
than ever.
Maximilian disappointed his
conservative backers by refusing
to return clerical lands confiscated
by his predecessors, advocating
religious
freedom,
abolishing
peonage, building new schools,
planning a modern navy and an
Empire stretching from the Rio
Grande to Panama. His new laws and
reform projects filled seven volumes,
but he never understood that legal
codes were seldom complied with.
Captivated by the beauty of the

country but dismayed by its terrible
poverty, he walked the streets as a
commoner, wearing Mexican clothes,
including a sombrero, ate Mexican
food, and attempted to fit in.
With the end of the U.S. Civil
War, Secretary of State William
Seward began to pressure Napoleon
to pull his troops out. U.S. troops
began to mass along the border,
and stores of guns and ammunition
were left unguarded at El Paso,
to be appropriated by Juarezâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
forces. Napoleon, fearing a rising,
militaristic Prussia led by the heavyhanded Count Otto von Bismarck
back in Europe, began to withdraw.
Maximilian was urged to abdicate,
which, proud of his Hapsburg
heritage and fearful of disgracing
it, he refused to do. Carlotta argued
that abdication was cowardice and
returned to Europe to lobby in vain
for support from other monarchs.
As the French army withdrew,
Juarezâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s troops closed in. Maximilian
fought on with the diminishing
numbers of men and resources
available to him, hoping to die
courageously in battle. In that he
failed. Instead, he was arrested and
shot. Juarez was convinced that such
a sentence was just, given the large
numbers of Mexicans who had died

during the struggle.
Three years later, the Prussians,
utilizing more effective weapons
and strategies, defeated Napoleon III
at Sedan and took him prisoner. He
lived out his days in bitter exile in the
United Kingdom. Carlotta, unrealistic
and insane to the end, lived in exile in
Belgium, surviving
until 1927. Mexico
was a republic
once again, and
Maximilian I, the
last king of Mexico,
faded into history.
Lorin Swinehart

ear Sir:
In response to your request for greater detail related to the above claim, I fully sympathize
with the incredulity of your associates, so
I will provide you with the full sequence
of events that should clarify how two incidents, separated by almost 200 miles
and several hours involving substantial
damage to my pickup/camper and my
home are parts of a single event.
On July fifteenth of this year, my wife
and I were returning from a camping trip
in the mountains near Lassen, California.
On our return we departed early
expecting to make the 450 mile drive to
our new home in McMinnville, Oregon in
a single day. By early afternoon we were

56

over half-way home and felt we could
take a break. My wife Anna suggested
that we do so by visiting the Wildlife Park
in Winston, Oregon.
It was a beautiful, warm summer day
and as we slowly drove through the park
a rhinoceros wandered onto the road,
stopped and swung around facing us. He
lowered his head and did not appear to
be hostile, not that I had any idea what
a hostile rhino would look like. I stepped
out of the car to take his picture. That’s
what a hostile rhinoceros looks like!
Somehow my action must have provoked the beast, because as I stepped
back to the pickup, he (I assume it was
a “he”) moved forward and nudged the
front of the vehicle with his horn.

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Startled I grunted, leapt into the
pickup and honked the horn. The rhino
grunted and hooked his horn into the
front of the pickup. I honked again, hoping to drive him away, but the rhino had
other ideas; shaking his head and shoulders he rammed the grill of my vehicle
again, more violently, I backed up but
he followed and rammed us again and
then, as if nothing of consequence had
occurred, he dropped a big load of manure on the road in front of us and trotted away.
Fearful that he might return, I did not
dismount to check the front end until we
had returned to the entrance of the park,
where I was able to assess the damage.
The grill was stove in and broken in several places. The hood had been jammed
back, bent in the middle, and impossible
to open. With the engine running I could
hear no sounds that indicated that the radiator or fan had been significantly damaged. The engine did not overheat so I
determined to attempt to return home
despite the damage. My wife was beside
herself with anxiety and after making a
report to the administration of the park,
(a teen-age ticket seller), I continued on
my way home to report the incident to
my insurance agent the next morning.
Passing Roseburg a few miles south
of the Winston turn-off, a sheriff ’s car
approached us from the rear sounding
its siren. I pulled off the road to allow it
to pass, but it pulled off in front of me
and a sheriff ’s deputy emerged from his
vehicle with his hand on the pistol in his
holster. He stood facing me until a second
deputy arrived and pulled up behind us.
When the first deputy approached us, I
rolled down my window to ask what the
problem was and he ordered me out of
the pickup. He spread-eagled me and
patted me down.
Then he demanded to know how I
had damaged the front of my pickup.
I explained that I had been attacked by
a rhinoceros. He looked at me as if I was
crazy and before I could explain further,
he ordered the second deputy to cuff me.
Then they made me take a breathalyzer
test, which I’m sure I passed, because I
don’t drink. Like common criminals, my
wife and I were hustled into the screened
rear seat of the deputy’s vehicle and carried away to state police headquarters in
Roseburg.
My wife by this time was too distraught to make a coherent statement. I
was terribly upset myself, but I finally was
able to convince a state police sergeant
to call the wildlife park. The teenager to
whom I had reported the rhino attack
had gone home and failed to report the
incident to his successor. It took an hour
to confirm my statement that I had been
attacked by the rhino and that I was not
the driver of a recent hit-and-run incident in Roseburg, the vehicle description
of which approximated my pickup and

its obvious damage.
Fortunately, by the time we left the
state police office in Roseburg my wife
had sufficiently calmed that she insisted
that she take her turn behind the wheel,
as was our usual practice. Exhausted from
the stress of events I decided to stretch
out on the bed in the rear cabin where
we slept when camping. About twenty
miles south of Roseburg I felt the urge
to urinate and I knocked on the rear window of the cab. Anna stopped to allow
me to step into the brush to relieve myself. I left the rear door on the camper cab
open. That was a mistake! As I returned
from the brush, a tractor-trailer roared by
and the rush of displaced air slammed
closed the door to the camper. My wife
Anna, thinking I had returned, drove off
before I could reach the highway.
I was stranded, but I waited by the
roadside hoping she would realize that I
had not gotten into the camper and she
would return for me. Unfortunately that
was not the case, and finally I thumbed
a ride. The driver asked me what I was
doing standing beside the highway in
such a remote place and I began with the
story of the rhino and then the incident
with the sheriff ’s deputies and the state
police. The driver looked at me as if I were
crazy, pulled over to the side of the road
and simply said, “out!”
Determined that I would say
nothing about the preceding events if
another good Samaritan came along,
I began walking down the edge of
the highway and surprisingly soon I
received another offer of a ride. He asked
me where I was headed, and without
further embellishment, I explained I
had recently moved to McMinnville. He
smiled and told me it was my lucky day,
because he only lived on a few miles
beyond McMinnville in Dundee. He said
he could take me directly to my own
doorstep. When we passed Salem, he
explained that he knew a shortcut that
would take us quickly to McMinnville.
It was such a good route that I arrived
home before my wife in the pickup. She
later told me she did not want to make
the damage to the front end worse by
driving at the maximum speed limit. She
didn’t attempt to wake me because the
concentration on driving helped to calm
her nerves.
My keys were in the pickup, so when
I arrived home I couldn’t get into the
house without breaking a window, so I
sat down to wait for Anna on the front
stoop. It was after dark when she arrived.
I stood and walked to the edge of the
driveway as she entered. When she saw
me standing in her headlights and not in
the back of the camper, her foot stamped
down on the accelerator instead of the
brake, and she went through the garage
door and out the back of the garage into
the master bedroom.

FRONT ROW CENTER
By Michael Warren

Season 49!

T

he musical The Drowsy
Chaperone closed at the
end of February, so there
wasn’t time for my review to make
it into this issue – you will have to
wait another month. Meanwhile,
the LLT has just announced the
plays for next season (Season 49).
Here they are:
1. Local Hero, written and directed
by Neal Checkoway.
2. The Heiress, by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, directed by Roseann
Wilshere.
3. Over The River And Through The
Woods, by Joe DiPietro, directed
by Ann Swiston.
4. Blood Relations, by Sharon Pollock, directed by Lynn Phelan.
5. Hooray For Hollywood!, written
and directed by Barbara Clippinger.
6. Social Security, by Andrew Bergman, directed by Phil Shepherd.
In 2005, Neal Checkoway
brought an original adaptation of
the cult classic Being There to the
LLT stage, including the projection
of pre-filmed scenes onto a back
screen. I will be interested to see
what he makes of Local Hero, which
was a 1983 comedy-drama set in a
fictional Scottish town called Ferness. The film is about an American
oil company representative who
is sent there to purchase the town
and surrounding property to make
way for a refinery. Naturally, he is affected by the strange beauty of the
place and some of the odd people
he meets – there may be opportunities for actors with Scottish accents!
In different ways, both The Heiress and Blood Relations explore the
plight of women trapped in impossible situations in the 19th century.
The Heiress is based on the 1880
Henry James novel “Washington
Square,” and the play opened on
Broadway in 1947. It has since been
revived several times, and won a
Tony award for a very successful
and long-running revival in 1995.
The story is set in 1850 and revolves
around the person of an initially
shy young woman whose character evolves and strengthens during
the play. This period drama will be
an exciting challenge for actors and

director. By contrast, Blood Relations is about Lizzie Borden, and in
effect it is a re-trial of her case with
the audience as jury. Like Doubt, a
play successfully performed here in
2007, the author provides no easy
solutions and we are left to wrestle
with our own pre-conceived notions of guilt and innocence.
Over The River And Through The
Woods is a 1994 play by New Jersey
writer-lyricist Joe DiPietro. If you
were brought up in a large ItalianAmerican family, you will certainly
relate to this comedy-drama. And
there will be significant parts for
older actors, as young “Nick Cristano” has been having dinner with
his four Italian grandparents every
Sunday of his life. This play should
provide some comic relief, in between two period dramas. Hooray
For Hollywood! has been created for
our entertainment by Barbara Clippinger, and the title says it all. We
can expect plenty of great songs
and high leg-kicks. Finally, the season will wind up with Social Security
– a risqué comedy by Hollywood
screenwriter Andrew Bergman,
with plenty of one-liners and a juicy
part for a feisty grandmother (no
pre-audition selections, please!).
So, Season 49 promises to be an
interesting and thought-provoking
series of plays, with some serious
dramas interspersed with light
comedy and a fun musical. Two of
the directors (Lynn Phelan and Phil
Shepherd) are new to LLT and Neal
Checkoway returns after an 8-year
absence. It’s a lot of work directing
a play, and in some cases the work
for next year begins now with consideration of the
characters, and
how to make the
play come across
successfully for
this local audience. Good luck
to all – break a
leg, but don’t fall
Michael Warren
off the stage!

Saw you in the Ojo 57

THE OJO INTERNET MAILBOX
(Wherein we publish some comments
about our previous issues.)

APOLOGIES
Bernie
I’m sorry I read this!!
Ken Loomes
You’re bad!
Manny
Mac; I am sitting here wondering
how you come up with all this BS. But it
is quite hilarious. Keep it up. Good night.
Elder Dotter
I never knew about your double
life!!....Where’s my apology?
THE WOMAN WHO THOUGHT SHE
LOVED MEN
Little sparrow
These stories moved me. Finally a
refreshing change from the status quo.
I applaud your courage Zofia.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF JEWS IN MEXICO
Gene Whitman
Hi Mel...enjoyed your article on Mexican Jews. I have met Mexican Jews in
San Miguel who have recently converted because they “ have always felt deep
down not Catholic.” Their families predate the late 19th and early 20th century immigrations. Are you aware of any
publications discussing this? Stands to
reason that more “hidden Jews” came to
Nuevo Mexico, given the combination
of the Inquisition and the opportunities
in the new world. Thx and regards, Gene
Whitman M.D.
EDITOR’S PAGE - FEBRUARY 2013
Vicki
Hey Fred, great job of shooting
down the extremely fuzzy logic of the
gun fetishists of the USA!
GEO-MEXICO: THE GEOGRAPHY AND
DYNAMICS OF MODERN MEXICO MAY 2010
Diana
Hi! I’m looking for this book here in
Mexico but I can’t find it, could you give
me the ISBN number? It would be easier
to me to search for it. Thanks :)
Diana
Richard Rhoda
Diana; The ISBN # for “Geo-Mexico:
The geography and Dynamics of Modern Mexico” is 978-0-9735191-3-6. The
book is only sold over the counter in
Chapala/Ajijic and San Miguel de Allende. It is available via internet at “www.
geo-mexico.com” or contact me directly
at rhodarick@yahoo.com.

58

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

THUNDER ON THE RIGHT - FEBRUARY
2013
Charlotte
So let me get this straight: rich countries have ‘food stamps’, poor countries
don’t. I know that ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ are
complicated statistical creations, but
how about a list of ‘rich’ countries without food stamps that prove you can be
a rich country without providing a system that can be systemically abused?
Because what I see is that rich countries
are willing to give a leg up to people
who need it, even if it means helping
the people who don’t.
Greg
Countries without social safety nets
tend to rank lower on the economic
development scale. Although certainly
practices of fraud need to be looked at
I don’t think Canada needs to take lessons from the USA on economics, foreign policy or creating a proper social
safety net.
LAKESIDE: LOURDES WITHOUT THE
RICH FRENCH FOOD
Carolyn
You made me laugh out loud. More
than once. And not from digestive issues. Thanks!
Bob
It’s heartening to know there
really are sages living lakeside.
Keep up the wise and wonderful
writing .....and keep off the carretera
on Wednesday mornings! Aaaaaa!
BB
MEXICO IS NOT FOR SALE!
Jane Viehl
What a wonderful history lesson!
Perhaps its true that people never
change, but we have to keep trying. Viva
Mexico!
FOCUS ON ART - SEPTEMBER 2012
Shelley Davis
MILO! So, you have finally moved to
Mexico! Good for you! Tom also moved,
but only to Lucerne!
Jonathan Carlson
Milo call me so i can get new numbers for you. Jono 310 995 6666
EVERY WORD IMPORTANT
Chance DeWitt
Would you please email me the
schedule of the Writers’ Conference
scheduled for March 7 and 8. I am coming from PV for the event. Thank you

Saw you in the Ojo 59

GREAT NEWS!

A

lianza
por
una
E d u c a c i ó n
H u m a n i t a r i a
(Alliance
for
Humane
Education) is formed by a
group of four associations
in education, science, child
welfare and animal advocacy
interested in improving the
quality of life in the Lakeside
area by fostering early values
of respect and responsibility
in children towards other
humans, animals and all living
beings with whom we share the
planet.
The Alliance is very proud to
inform to the public in general, that
after a strong screening process
by the education authorities, the
program has obtained authorization
of the local Secretary of Education,
Delegation Ciénega, to implement
its program in 51 schools along the
Jocotepec-Chapala region, previous
agreement with school supervisors,
principals and teachers.
The
six-session
program
“Guardianes del Planeta,” under the
category of “Non Violence & Antibullying—An Education for Peace,”
will be supervised and implemented
by professionals to guarantee highest
education standards. We want to
very specially thank the Secretary
of Education La Ciénega, same as its
Delegation in Jocotopec, for their
sensibility and cooperation in this
matter.
Furthermore, the program has
been shared with the Mexican Association for Animal Rights (Asociación
Mexicana de los Derechos de los Animales, A.C.) after its content was categorized by them as the best program

60

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

combining children & animal welfare
they have encountered.
SPRING BREAK AND SUMMER
HUMANE EDUCATION CAMPS FOR
CHILDREN AT LAKESIDE
A Spring Break Humane Education
Camp will be held for Children of
Love in Action on March 23 to April
7, 2013. Children will participate
in our first Humane Education
Camp which will include Humane
Education Workshops, same as
those activities that will encourage
children to improve their social and
conflict resolution skills. Children
will be encouraged to participate
in community activities supporting
other children, animals and the
environment.
A one-week Humane Education
Camp will be held during the Summer
2013 for children as of 7 years old
during the month of July 2013. For
further details about our Humane
Education program, community
activities and summer camps, please
contact: Eliana Herrerías (045)
3315448143 or email: apeh_mexico@
hotmail.com

I started out with nothing, and I still have
most of it.
2. My wild oats have turned
into prunes and all-bran.
3. I finally got my head together,
and now my body is falling apart.
4. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.
5. Funny, I still don’t remember
being absent-minded.
6. If all is not lost, where is it?
7. It is easier to get older than it
is to get wiser.
8. Some days, you’re the dog;
some days you’re the hydrant.
9. I wish the buck stopped here;
I sure could use a few.
10. Kids in the back seat cause
accidents.
11. Accidents in the back seat
cause kids.
12. It’s hard to make a comeback when you haven’t been anywhere.
13. The only time the world
beats a path to your door is when
you’re in the bathroom.
14. If God wanted me to touch
my toes, he’d have put them on my
knees.
15. When I’m finally holding
all the cards, why does everyone
want to play chess?
16. It’s not hard to meet expenses . . . they’re everywhere.
17. The only difference between

a rut and a grave is the depth.
18. These days, I spend a lot of
time thinking about the hereafter
. . .I go somewhere to get something, and then wonder what I’m
hereafter
19. Funny, I don’t remember
being absent-minded.
20. DID I SEND THESE TO YOU
BEFORE..........??????

Saw you in the Ojo 61

The Poets’ Niche
By Mark Sconce
msconce@gmail.com
Russian Poetry in the Golden Age
The Pushkin Pleiad

It was a time of enormous and varied achievements in the arts, the 1810s, 1820s and 1830s.
St.Petersburg, the Russian capital at that time, was
the focal point of advances in every conceivable art fform. EEnormous prestige
i attached
h d
to practitioners of the divine mystery we call art. The Russian love for dance and music
was rivaled only by their love of poetry, which has no equal except in Ireland. And within the colorful aurora borealis of poetry there shown one particularly bright light: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837).* Admired and quoted across Russia even
today, Pushkin led the way creating a Russian literary language that successfully competed with French, the language of the upper classes. Best known for Eugene Onegin,
Pushkin wrote over a thousand lyric and narrative poems, plays, essays, reviews, and
extensive letters. Yet he was only 37 when struck down in a pistol duel over a beautiful
woman—his flirtatious wife. Ever the romantic, his first student poem hung as a sign
on a hospital wall: Here lies a student gravely ill/His only lot is to endure/So take away that
useless pill/There is for love as yet no cure.” Trans. James E. Falen. Pushkin’s death-by-pistol
was a national calamity. Over 30,000 admirers filed by the casket on a single day. One
old man stood by the coffin quietly weeping. When the poet, Prince Viazemsky, asked
him if he knew Pushkin personally, the old gentleman, tears streaming down his face,
answered simply, “No, but I am a Russian.”
The so-called Pushkin Pleiad included Prince Petr Viazemsky (1792-1878).
Advisor to Czars, mentor to Pushkin and “favorite of the Muses,” Viazemsky sported a
wicked wit poking fun at the powers that be.
Do you need an explanation what the Russian god can be?
Here’s a rough approximation as the thing appears to me.
God of snowstorms, god of potholes, every wretched road you’ve trod,
coach-inns, cockroach haunts and rat holes, that’s him, that’s your Russian god.
God of frostbite, god of famine, beggars, cripples by the yard,
farms with no crops to examine, that’s him, that’s your Russian god.
Then there was Nikolay Iazykov (1803-1847), an outspoken liberal in the
Pushkin Pleiad who didn’t even shy away from disparaging the Czar, a dangerous
thing to do.
The times we face are cruel, harsh. Stupidity’s enthroned in arms!
Farewell, O poetry that’s holy, Hello, O slavery’s quietude!
Next to Pushkin, Evgeny Baratynsky (1800-1844) was declared best poet of the
Pleiad. He believed that imagination was the bridge between reason and emotion. A
philosophical poet, he was also the most convincingly melancholic and romantic:
False tenderness from me do not demand/I shan’t conceal my heart’s sad chill.
You’re right, the lovely flame/Of my first love, has disappeared.
And when in vain I turn my thoughts/To your dear face and our old dreams:
My memories are lifeless./I gave my word, but I cannot keep it.
And who could forget Baron Anton von Delvig (1798-1831), one of Pushkin’s closest friends and a poet given to tender emotions, particularly to friendship and love?
Your golden curls, their fortunate disorder,
Your azure eyes, their greeting, as in dream,
Your lips’ sweet sound, if only in dissent,
Give birth to love with hopelessness together.
These fine poets and several more were sparkling talents in
their own right who, in any other era, might have been considered
major poets. But Pushkin’s brilliance outshone them all and the
era is his. Pushkin personally admired these poets both as people
and as writers. The Golden Age was their age.
*A Passion for Pushkin, The Poets’ Niche, June 2011.
Mark Sconce

62

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Saw you in the Ojo 63

LETTING GO—In Practice
By Loretta S. Downs

I

t took me seven years to quit
smoking. Seven long manic
years of alternately suffering
and celebrating from the day I acknowledged my desire to stop until I
finally did. Christmas Day 1992 is tattooed on my mind.
Cigarettes were a part of my life. I
picked the first one up when I babysat for my sister’s children. She and
her husband smoked. Didn’t everyone in 1959? There were ashtrays
holding remnants on the kitchen
table, the coffee table, the bathroom
counter, and the bedroom dresser,
calling to us.
Guilt was always part of smoking. I had to hide it from my parents
until the night during my junior year
when dad came home around 10 PM
from a father’s club meeting at my
all-girls Catholic high school, opened
a beer and lit a cigarette. I sat down
at the table next to him and casually
lit one too. I was freed from guilt.
I smoked a pack a day for years.
Breakfast was a cigarette and a cup
of coffee. Lunch meant cigarettes.
There were cigarette breaks and
cigarettes with dinner and cigarettes
all night long until I smashed the last
one out in the ashtray on the nightstand.
The first time I quit was motivated
by the increase in price from 25 to 30
cents a pack. Then I got a raise and
the price was less motivating. I kept
smoking.
Coming of age meant I could start
to drink alcohol, and that went with
cigarettes like jelly and peanut butter. When I couldn’t smoke while I
drank, I’d just eat more until I gained
10, 20, 30 pounds and I would start
smoking again.
I could not give up smoking. Every
time I did I felt like I was doing just
that, giving up something I wanted,
I needed. I tortured myself. Smokers
were sympathetic. After a few drinks
and a basket of bread, they’d edge
their pack across the table near my
hand so I could help myself.
Sometimes it was funny. I could

64

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

make people laugh until they wet
their pants with tales of how low I
would go to get a cigarette. I would
bribe waiters—even at the finest
restaurants-- when the wine would
weaken my resolve. When a pack was
up to $3, I would whisper, “Can I buy
a cigarette from you for $1?” They’d
always give me more than one.
What had to happen in order for
me to stop the madness was to accept that I did not want cigarettes
in my life for no other reason than
that. When they became too much
trouble to hold on to, like a love gone
bad, I let go of wanting Mr. Smokes. I
was free.
In my years of yo-yo dieting, I
would add larger sizes to my closet
as I added pounds, and then merrily
discard them as soon as I lost weight,
with no regard for the poor return
on my investment. Letting go of the
symbols of my failure was easy.
I’ve realized this is a game I play
with myself, bluffing and hoping the
guy sitting across from me won’t
have the winning hand. He is Death
and I am playing against a pro.
There will be the many stages in
which my body will change in ways
I cannot predict and I will be forced
to let go of so much more. I will have
to let go of doing everything my way
and doing it alone. I’ll be confronted
by a disease that can’t be beat, the
need to use a cane, then a walker,
then a bed, and then my grave.
Even though I will be letting go
of everything I can touch and hold,
I intend to keep a firm grasp on the
spirit of the woman within me. The
woman who baby sat her sister’s
children, who got educated, who
had the good sense to stop smoking
when she did, who danced at fancy
parties in elegant gowns, ran races,
practiced yoga, received awards
for her butterfly garden, loved, and
lived.
I will hold on to all of the person I
am until the day I say it’s time to lay
down my cards, let go, and set myself
free.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Sir,
I’m appalled by the “Thunder On
The Right” article by Paul Jackson in the
Ojo February Edition. Surely this was
written with tongue-in-cheek. If not, it
is ignorant at worst and mis-informed at
best.
He blames food stamps for US citizens not wanting or trying to work and
perpetuates the stigma that food stamp
users are drunks and layabouts….”they
use food stamps at the supermarket,
and then slip over to the liquor store to
buy a six-pack.”
He claims that the Canadian medical system is “outrageously abused” by
the fact (?) “some people visit their doctor once a week just to have a chat.” I
lived in Canada for sixty years and know

68

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

no doctor who would waste his/her
time and skills by having regular weekly
chats!
Finally he insults our intelligence by
suggesting that US citizens would create work, as Mexicans do, if food stamps
weren’t so easily available. He cites Mexico as a country where “everyone does
almost anything to make a living. They
sell fruit in the streets, they wash cars,
they polish shoes, they open up small
businesses.” Can you imagine opening
a taco stand on a corner in New York
City where all food carts are licensed (at
a very hefty fee), and health regulated?
Please Mr. Jackson, tell us you really
weren’t serious!!!
Judi Kells
Ocampo 85B, Ajijic,
766-4597

The

LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY

News

March 2013

REPORT FROM THE BOARD

Governance at LCS is accomplished through the thousands of hours of work done by the dedicated volunteers of the Board of
Directors and its five standing committees: Finance, Fund Development, Community Relations, Programs and Services, and
Management. This is an overview of 2012 activities and accomplishments.
LCS Finance Committee (Paula Haarvei, Chair) This
committee prepares the annual budget ensuring that
sufficient funds are available for LCS operations, including
the Wilkes Education Center (Biblioteca Publica), student
aid, programs and services, building and grounds, the
directory, and fundraising activities. Our reserve fund,
targeted to provide twelve months of administrative costs
(fixed and overhead), currently stands at MXN 300,000;
the committee will recommend adding an additional MXN
150,000 pesos from the 2012 surplus. The committee has
updated old financial policies and procedures, created new
ones and formed an ad-hoc exploratory committee to study
the feasibility of replacing outdated buildings through a
capital campaign.
LCS Fund Development Committee (Karen Blue, Interim
Chair) The Fund Development Committee is researching
ways to accept tax-exempt donations from Canadian,
Mexican and U.S. donors including a mechanism to name
LCS as a beneficiary for planned and deferred giving.
(Currently donations from U.S.citizens are processed through
the Foundation for Lake Chapala Charities.) Student aid
program funding through the website has received donations
netting MXN 2,821 the first month.
Community Relations Committee (Lois Cugini, Chair) The
committee created a stronger LCS presence in the Mexican
community- opening the grounds for foreigners and Mexicans
to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, providing water
bottles at the finish line of the Chupinaya Mountain Race, and
offering the LCS grounds for an Ajijic Plaza Project fundraiser.
Its most successful major fundraiser, Fiesta Latina, provided
its guests with Latin foods, music and dance.
Program and Services Committee (Ben White, Chair)
To get a better handle on programs and services offered, the
committee created three categories: managed programs or
services offered and directly managed by LCS; concession
programs that provide a service or product for a fee, and
sanctioned programs on LCS grounds that have a community or social enrichment component and are typically run by
LCS member volunteers. The committee was able to evaluate these programs and determine whether they conform to
the mandates in the LCS Constitution. The committee also
reviewed and approved changes to the post life program,
and the policies and procedures related to LCS bulletin

boards. On behalf of the LCS Board, the Program and Services Committee was appointed steward of the Drummond
Legacy Children’s Art Collection and will develop policies
relating to its future use.
Management Committee (Fred Harland, Chair)
The Committee completed work on a significant number
of LCS policy and procedure issues: personnel matters,
appeals, buildings and grounds, re-naming the Biblioteca
Publica, the service desk, copyrights, bilingualism, member
behavior, and vendor contracts. A search for an assistant
to the executive director to implement more professional
program planning and execution is in process.
An overwhelming part of the Committee’s work focused a
growing list of concerns that impact LCS physical plant,
membership, programs and services. An ad-hoc exploratory
committee will be formed to take over the long-range tasks
initiated by the Management Committee.
The Ad-hoc Exploratory Committee (Cate Howell, Chair)
Established at the June Board of Directors meeting, the
committee’s task is to evaluate the feasibility of raising
funds to meet the cost of proposed improvements to LCS
campus.
Over the past six months, the committee brainstormed
many ideas about the future of existing LCS services, the
development of new programs, sources of additional income,
enhanced use of information technology, partnerships with
industry and government, re-purposing of existing assets,
re-building the LCS campus, and meeting the interests
of future “boomer” retirees. To explore those factors they
recognized the need for a professional Feasibility Study to
guide the LCS Long-Range Strategic Plan. The Feasibility
Study recommended by the Ad-hoc Exploratory Committee
and approved by the Board, is underway and be completed
soon.

Film Aficionados
Thursdays in March
Members only - No dogs - All films in the Sala
March 7 12:00 pm Wolfsburg Germany 2003
Psychological drama A woman seeks the driver of a car
that hit her young son. Perfect direction by Christian
Petzold and excellent acting by the two lead characters
make this drama worthy of its many awards.
March 14 2:00 pm Barbara Germany 2012
In this drama that could have been written by Franz
Kafka, a doctor working in 1980’s East Berlin finds herself
banished to a small rural hospital and hounded by the
Stasi (Secret Police). This film may be director Christian
Petzold’s masterpiece and is Germany’s Oscar entry for
Best Foreign Language Film 2013.
March 21 12:00 pm The Other Bank
Kazakhstan/ Georgia 2009
A refugee boy and his mother fleeing the ethnic
cleansing in the Abkahzia section of Georgia seek
refuge in the capital, Tblisi. The boy returns home to find
his father and learns a lot about life during his journey.
28 March 2:00 pm Liberal Arts United States 2012
A good-natured and surprisingly clever look at the
addictive pull of nostalgia for our younger days.

Fiesta Latina a Success!
A HUGE thanks to all of you who participated in this fund-raising
event. Because of your participation, as a guest, volunteer or service
provider, we raised a record $130,000 MXN for our Community Education
Program. Congratulations everyone!!!
A special thanks goes out to Lois Cugini who organized the event...
JOB WELL DONE!

Karen Shirack
Lois Cugini
Concha Gurski

*BRING YOUR LCS MEMBERSHIP CARD*

LCS Learning Seminars March
(via TED Internet podcast)
In the Sala Tuesdays at Noon
Members Only
*BRING YOUR LCS MEMBERSHIP CARD*
March 5 Chaired by Ron Mullenaux
Is there a definite line between crazy and sane?
With a hair-raising delivery, Jon Ronson, author of The
Psychopath Test, illuminates the gray areas between the
two extremes...or are they?
March 12 Chaired by Bill Frayer
Bio-medical researcher Mina Bissell’s experiments
point to a new understanding of cancer. For decades,
Bissell, former head of life sciences at Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory, pursued a revolutionary idea -- that a cancer
cell depends on its microenvironment for cues on how to
develop. She shares the two key experiments that prove
the prevailing wisdom about cancer growth is wrong.
March 19 Chaired by Fred Harland
“Between Music and Medicine” Robert Gupta, doctor
and violinist, lives between two worlds, a bow in his hand
and a sense of social justice in his heart. He tells a
moving story of society’s marginalized members and the
power of music therapy to succeed where conventional
medicine has failed.
March 24 Chaired by Ron Mullenaux
In this inspiring talk, “Four Principles for the Open
World” Futurist Don Tapscott says recent generations,
exposed to technology from birth, are transforming the
world into a far more open, transparent and better place.

70

El Ojo del Lago / March 2013

Emile Badawy
Nancy Creeven
Lorena Rule

Beth Cathcart
Kenneth Caldwell
Donna Esposito

Don’t Forget the Casi Nuevo Thrift Shop
Thrift shop income assists three important charities:
• School for the Deaf in Jocotepec
• Have Hammers… Will Travel
• The LCS Community Education Program
Drop off items at the store in Riberas del Pilar or the drop box at LCS. We
will pick up larger items at no charge. Please contact Jacqueline Smith at
766-1303 or email smithjacqueline55@gmail.com.

VIDEO LIBRARY
New Additions for March
New additions are previewed on the LCS web page.
Catalogs have been updated for 2013.
Game Change #D6088: McCain secures the
nomination, but polls behind Obama. Strategist
Steve Schmidt suggests a game changer: a
conservative woman, unknown, media savvy
Alaska governor Sarah Palin, as vice president-she’s an immediate hit and a quick study - the gap
closes. She doesn’t prepare for her Katie Couric
interview and bombs. Schmidt’s answer: give her
a script. Palin debates Biden; finds her voice;
goes off script, and goes rogue. A mistake? Ed
Harris Julianne Moore 7.4 of 10
Eight Men Out #D6081 A dramatization of the
Black Sox scandal when the underpaid Chicago
White Sox accepted bribes to lose the 1919 World
Series. John Cusak Clifton James Drama/History
7.2 of 10
Bend It Like Beckham #D6090 A comedy about
bending the rules to reach your goals, Bend It
Like Beckham explores the world of women’s
soccer, from kick-abouts in the park to freekicks
in the Final. Set in Hounslow, West London
and Hamburg, the film follows two 18 year olds
with their hearts set on a future in professional
soccer. Heart-stopping talent doesn’t seem to
be enough when your parents want you to hang
up your football boots, find a nice boyfriend and
learn to cook the perfect chapatti. Keira Knightly
Paminder Nagra Comedy 6.8 of 10
Unconscious #D6095 A Freudian comedy set in
1913 Barcelona playfully questions sexual taboos
via a Sherlock Holmes-style investigation.
Spanish soundtrack English subtitles 7.2 of 10
Three documentaries: The Cove (#6094), Cats
of Mirikitania (#D6075) and Jonestown (#6078).
Please see the LCS web page under Video Rental
or the red catalogs outside the video library for
details about these documentaries.
If you are traveling north of the border and
returning soon, or if you have guests coming
to visit, we could use your help. The Video
Library depends upon travelers who act as
couriers to fill film library inventory. We order
movies on-line, prepay them and have them
delivered to an address of the courier’s choice.
Each traveler can bring 10 DVDs duty-free
into Mexico. They don’t take up much room,
so if you can help, please come to the Video
Library. Thank you.

Saw you in the Ojo 71

2013 Directories Now Available
The beautiful new LCS directories are available for members.
Ask one of the volunteers in the office for your copy.

LCS Singles St. Patrick's Day Party
Irish or not, you’ll want to join the festivities Sunday, March 17th
at El Barco from 4:30 pm until everybody’s tired of celebrating.
Corned beef and cabbage or rib dinners are on the menu, and
Irish music with the Jam Band and recorded tunes, will be in the
air for dancing and general revelry.
Tickets will be sold at the door for 125 pesos and will include
food and one green beer or drink. Other food and drink choices
will be available.You’ll find El Barco on the carretera.
Please RSVP to Phil at carphil10@gmail.com or call 01 387 761
0125.

Update: Immigration Reform
Do you still have questions about the new immigration reforms?
Updated information about the new law will be presented by
Alvaro Becerra from Becerra Immigration Services Friday,
March 15th at the Neill James Patio, 11-12:30 pm. Open to the
public.

Looking for Qualified Workers?
Long and short term workers are available for any kind of job
throughout the entire Lakeside area. Contact elbelgicano.com to
access the free database of almost 1,200 job seekers.

More Activities for March
Palacio de La Cultura y La Comunicacion
Presentation on the new cultural center in Guadalajara by
Leonardo Gasparini Friday, March 8 at the LCS Neill James
Patio, 11:00 am. Open to the public.
The Prelude to War
American-Japanese Relations 1853-1941
Presented by Arnold Smith Monday, 11 March 2013
LCS Sala, 12-2:00 pm. LCS Members Only.

1. Mexican Birds, Peterson Field Guides. 2.
Western Birds, Peterson Field Guides. 3. A
Bird Finding Guide to Mexico, Steve N.G.
Howell. 4. Field Guide to Birds of North America, by Kenn Kaufman.
WANTED: driving north, want to share?.
I will be driving to California this Spring and
would like someone to ride with me to share
driving and expenses. Non smoker, please.
Dates flexible.
FOR SALE: Elegant and decorative entry gates measure 11 feet high by 11 feet
wide, and 9 feet high by 3 feet wide and are
of wrought iron. Price: $14,000 pesos, Call:
331-540-5186.
FOR SALE: 2 dining room sets for sale.
one is a team with 8 chairs for $9,500 pesos.
the other is a solid marble top table with a
beautiful design and has 6 chairs for $9,000
pesos. Both can be used outdoors in patio.
Must see to appreciate. Call: 01 (387) 7630908.
FOR SALE: Lovely antique white baker’s
rack with glass shelving, wooden drawers
and wine storage. Price: $2,000 pesos.
FOR SALE: Master Lock 1177D. Heavy
duty lock suitable for outside security. Master
lock pro series. Set your own combination.
Price: $ 180 pesos.
FOR SALE: 5 cubic foot chest freezer.
Price: 125 USD.
FOR SALE: Bird Watcher’s Special. This
equipment is in “brand new” condition and
consists of the following: (1)- a set of “OBERWERK” 10x-30x60 binoculars with all associated accessories (2)- a “MANFROTTO” adjustable leg tripod complete with a mounting
table for binoculars and/or camera. The original cost was $750.00 USD. Price: $500.00
USD. Call: (376) 766-3785.
FOR SALE: Cranial Protection. have two
identical white “crash” helmets for sale. One
was used for 2 hours, the other is brand new.
Each is equipped with an adjustable clear
face mask. Price: $250 Pesos or 2 for $400
Pesos. Call: (376)-766-3785.
FOR SALE: mattress for hospital bed.
Never used but not new. In closet for two
years because mother refused to stop using her own “flat bed”. Cost over a hundred
dollars. Like new, must sell as we have no
use for it. Price: $1,000 pesos. Call: 376-7657455. In Chula Vista. (Laredo location is my
mailing address).
FOR SALE: Pedestal fountain, 2 masks,
MX mirror, amazing wood carved privacy
screen, 5 table lamps, 1 floor lamp, burgundy rug, wooden coffee table, wooden lamp
stand with 4 drawers, vases, pictures, wall
hangings, baskets, 2 plastic chairs, 2 folding chairs, over 30 plants, linen, cushions, 2
Masks, many large clay pots, mais flowers &
much more. Please Call 765-7280 or e-mail
for info or pictures Can bring smaller items for
viewing to LCS.
WANTED: need a roof top carrier. Call:
765-7494.
FOR SALE: Car tow dolly comes with
portable lights, over the tire tie down straps
and safety chains. The tires are like new.
Its ready to tow any size/type of car, Price:
$650.00. lawandrew07@yahoo.com. Cell:
331-046-5642.
FOR SALE: Nobel Prize for Literature in
German. From 1901 thru 1988. There are 23
Volumes, each selling for 125 Pesos. In each
volume there are 3 different novels. They are
in perfect condition. Price: $125 pesos per
book. Call: 765-2603.
FOR SALE: Sennheiser HD202 Dynamic
Headphones. New. Price: $40. Call: 766-